Provided by: abigail-doc_2.8-2_all 
NAME
libabigail - Library to analyze and compare ELF ABIs
OVERVIEW OF THE ABIGAIL FRAMEWORK
ABIGAIL stands for the Application Binary Interface Generic Analysis and Instrumentation Library.
It’s a framework which aims at helping developers and software distributors to spot some ABI-related
issues like interface incompatibility in ELF shared libraries by performing a static analysis of the ELF
binaries at hand.
The type of interface incompatibilities that Abigail focuses on is related to changes on the exported ELF
functions and variables symbols, as well as layout and size changes of data types of the functions and
variables exported by shared libraries.
In other words, if the return type of a function exported by a shared library changes in an incompatible
way from one version of a given shared library to another, we want Abigail to help people catch that.
In more concrete terms, the Abigail framwork provides a shared library named libabigail which exposes an
API to parse a shared library in ELF format (accompanied with its associated debug information in DWARF
format) build an internal representation of all the functions and variables it exports, along with their
types. Libabigail also builds an internal representation of the ELF symbols of these functions and
variables. That information about these exported functions and variables is roughly what we consider as
being the ABI of the shared library, at least, in the scope of Libabigail.
Aside of this internal representation, libabigail provides facilities to perform deep comparisons of two
ABIs. That is, it can compare the types of two sets of functions or variables and represents the result
in a way that allows it to emit textual reports about the differences.
This allows us to write tools like abidiff that can compare the ABI of two shared libraries and represent
the result in a meaningful enough way to help us spot ABI incompatibilities. There are several other
tools that are built using the Abigail framwork.
CONCEPTS
ABI artifacts
An ABI artifact is a relevant part of the ABI of a shared library or program. Examples of ABI artifacts
are exported types, variables, functions, or ELF symbols exported by a shared library.
The set of ABI artifacts for a binary is called an ABI Corpus.
Scalar types have a name, a size and other scalar properties.
An aggregate type is generally constituted of sub-types.
For instance, class or union types are a kind of aggregate type. They have a name, a size and members.
Each member can be either
• a data member with a type representing a sub-type of the aggregate type, an offset and a name
• or a function with a type representing another sub-type of the aggregate type and a name. Some
(virtual) member functions might have an offset as well.
Another example of aggregate type is a function type, which is the union of the return type and parameter
types of the function.
Functions and variables are declarations that have a name and a type. They are both associated with an ‐
ELF symbol.
ABI changes
Libabigail represents and analyzes changes of types, functions, variables and ELF symbols.
Those different kinds of ABI artifact changes are categorized depending on the impact they have on ABI
compatibility.
ABI artifact changes are reported by tools like abidiff and abipkgdiff in textual diff reports organized
around the different kinds of changes listed below.
Please note that users can instruct the tools to avoid emitting reports about certain changes. This is
done via suppression specifications.
Harmless changes
A change in the diff report is considered harmless if it does not cause any ABI compatibility issue.
That is, it does not prevent an application dynamically linked against a given version of a library to
keep working with the changed subsequent versions of the same library.
By default, abidiff and abipkgdiff filters harmless changes from the diff report.
Harmful changes
An ABI change is considered harmful if it might cause ABI compatibility issues. That is, it might
prevent an application dynamically linked against a given version of a library to keep working with the
changed subsequent versions of the same library.
Said otherwise, a harmful change is a change that is not harmless.
A harmful change absolutely needs to be reviewed by a human being to know if it actually causes an ABI
compatibility issue.
By default, abidiff shows harmful changes for functions and global variables.
If the tool emits at least one harmful change then the bit ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE of the bit-field returned
in the exit code is set to 1.
Incompatible changes
An incompatible change is a harmful change that causes ABI incompatibilities issues. In the colloquial
language of programmers, such a change is said to break ABI.
If the abidiff or abipkgdiff tool emits at least one incompatible change then the bits
ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE and ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE of the bit-field returned in the exit code are set
to 1.
Changes recognized as ABI incompatible are the following:
• SONAME change of shared library
• change of the architecture of a binary
• remove of exported function or global variable ELF symbols (not necessarily described by debug
information)
• removal of exported functions or global variables that are described by debug information.
• any incompatible change to the layout of the type which is used as a type of a global variable or a
return or parameter type of a function. That incompatible layout type change might be:
• a modification to the size of the type
• or the removal of a data member
• or a modification of a data member offset
• or an incompatible change to a sub-type of the type
Please note that if a type is used neither as a type of a global variable nor as a return or parameter
type of a function, then abidiff (or abipkgdiff) will not consider an incompatible change of this type
as an incompatible ABI change. That change will just be considered as harmful. The ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE
bit of the bit-field returned in the exit code is set to 1, meaning that the change requires a human
review. This is a current limitation of the libabigail analysis framework that might be addressed in
future refinements.
Suppression specifications
Definition
A suppression specification file is a way for a user to instruct abidiff, abipkgdiff or any other
relevant libabigail tool to avoid emitting reports for changes involving certain ABI artifacts.
It contains directives (or specifications) that describe the set of ABI artifacts to avoid emitting
change reports about.
Introductory examples
Its syntax is based on a simplified and customized form of Ini File Syntax. For instance, to specify
that change reports on a type named FooPrivateType should be suppressed, one could write this suppression
specification:
[suppress_type]
name = FooPrivateType
If we want to ensure that only change reports about structures named FooPrivateType should be suppressed,
we could write:
[suppress_type]
type_kind = struct
name = FooPrivateType
But we could also want to suppress change reports avoid typedefs named FooPrivateType. In that case we
would write:
[suppress_type]
type_kind = typedef
name = FooPrivateType
Or, we could want to suppress change reports about all struct which names end with the string
“PrivateType”:
[suppress_type]
type_kind = struct
name_regexp = ^.*PrivateType
Let’s now look at the generic syntax of suppression specification files.
Syntax
Properties
More generally, the format of suppression lists is organized around the concept of property. Every
property has a name and a value, delimited by the = sign. E.g:
name = value
Leading and trailing white spaces are ignored around property names and values.
Regular expressions
The value of some properties might be a regular expression. In that case, they must comply with the
syntax of extended POSIX regular expressions. Note that Libabigail uses the regular expression engine of
the GNU C Library.
Escaping a character in a regular expression
When trying to match a string that contains a * character, like in the pointer type int*, one must be
careful to notice that the character * is a special character in the extended POSIX regular expression
syntax. And that character must be escaped for the regular expression engine. Thus the regular
expression that would match the string int* in a suppression file should be
int\\*
Wait; but then why the two \ characters? Well, because the \ character is a special character in the Ini
File Syntax used for specifying suppressions. So it must be escaped as well, so that the Ini File parser
leaves a \ character intact in the data stream that is handed to the regular expression engine. Hence
the \\ targeted at the Ini File parser.
So, in short, to escape a character in a regular expression, always prefix the character with the \\
sequence.
Modus operandi
Suppression specifications can be applied at two different points of the processing pipeline of
libabigail.
In the default operating mode called “late suppression mode”, suppression specifications are applied to
the result of comparing the in-memory internal representations of two ABIs. In this mode, if an ABI
artifact matches a suppression specification, its changes are not mentioned in the ABI change report.
The internal representation of the “suppressed” changed ABI artifact is still present in memory; it is
just not mentioned in the ABI change report. The change report can still mention statistics about the
number of changed ABI artifacts that were suppressed.
This is the default mode of interpretation of suppression specifications for most tools including abidiff
and abidw.
There is another operating mode called the “early suppression mode” where suppression specifications are
applied during the construction of the in-memory internal representation of a given ABI. In that mode,
if an ABI artifact matches a suppression specification, no in-memory internal representation is built for
it. As a result, no change about the matched ABI artifact is going to be mentioned in the ABI change
report and no statistic about the number of suppressed ABI changes is available. Also, please note that
because suppressed ABI artifacts are removed from the in-memory internal representation in this mode, the
amount of memory used by the internal representation is potentially smaller than the memory consumption
in the late suppression mode.
Please note that this mode suppresses data from the internal representation constructed by libabigail and
thus can lead to unintended and surprising consequences. Consequently this mode has to be set explicitly
by users either by using the drop property in a suppression specification or by using a special tool
command line option like abidw –force-early-suppression.
Sections
Properties are then grouped into arbitrarily named sections that shall not be nested. The name of the
section is on a line by itself and is surrounded by square brackets, i.e:
[section_name]
property1_name = property1_value
property2_name = property2_value
A section might or might not have properties. Sections that expect to have properties and which are
found nonetheless empty are just ignored. Properties that are not recognized by the reader are ignored
as well.
Section names
Each different section can be thought of as being a directive to suppress ABI change reports for a
particular kind of ABI artifact.
[suppress_file]
This directive prevents a given tool from loading a file (binary or abixml file) if its file name or
other properties match certain properties. Thus, if the tool is meant to compare the ABIs of two files,
and if the directive prevents it from loading either one of the files, then no comparison is performed.
Note that for the [suppress_file] directive to work, at least one of the following properties must be
provided:
file_name_regexp, file_name_not_regexp, soname_regexp, soname_not_regexp.
If none of the above properties are provided, then the [suppress_file] directive is simply ignored.
The potential properties of this sections are listed below:
• file_name_not_regexp
Usage:
file_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Prevents the system from loading the file which name does not match the regular expression specified as
value of this property.
• file_name_regexp
Usage:
file_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Prevents the system from loading the file which name matches the regular expression specified as value
of this property.
• label
Usage:
label = <some-value>
Define a label for the section. A label is just an informative string that might be used by the tool
to refer to a type suppression in error messages. There can also be some special label names that
make the suppression system behave a certain way.
• soname_regexp
Usage:
soname_regexp = <regular-expression>
Prevents the system from loading the file which contains a SONAME property that matches the regular
expression of this property. Note that this property also works on an abixml file if it contains a
SONAME property.
• soname_not_regexp
Usage:
soname_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Prevents the system from loading the file which contains a SONAME property that does NOT match the
regular expression of this property. Note that this property also works on an abixml file if it
contains a SONAME property.
[suppress_type]
This directive suppresses report messages about a type change.
Note that for the [suppress_type] directive to work, at least one of the following properties must be
provided:
file_name_regexp, file_name_not_regexp, soname_regexp, soname_not_regexp, name, name_regexp,
name_not_regexp, source_location_not_in, source_location_not_regexp, type_kind.
If none of the above properties are provided, then the [suppress_type] directive is simply ignored.
The potential properties of this sections are listed below:
• accessed_through
Usage:
accessed_through = <some-predefined-values>
Suppress change reports involving a type which is referred to either directly or through a pointer or
a reference. The potential values of this property are the predefined keywords below:
• direct
So if the [suppress_type] contains the property description:
accessed_through = direct
then changes about a type that is referred-to directly (i.e, not through a pointer or a
reference) are going to be suppressed.
• pointer
If the accessed_through property is set to the value pointer then changes about a type that is
referred-to through a pointer are going to be suppressed.
• reference
If the accessed_through property is set to the value reference then changes about a type that is
referred-to through a reference are going to be suppressed.
• reference-or-pointer
If the accessed_through property is set to the value reference-or-pointer then changes about a
type that is referred-to through either a reference or a pointer are going to be suppressed.
For an extensive example of how to use this property, please check out the example below about
suppressing change reports about types accessed either directly or through pointers.
• changed_enumerators
Usage:
changed_enumerators = <list-of-enumerators>
Suppresses change reports involving changes in the value of enumerators of a given enum type. This
property is applied if the type_kind property is set to the value enum, at least. The value of the
changed_enumerators is a comma-separated list of the enumerators that the user expects to change. For
instance:
changed_enumerators = LAST_ENUMERATORS0, LAST_ENUMERATOR1
• changed_enumerators_regexp
Usage:
changed_enumerators_regexp = <list-of-enumerator-regular-expressions>
Suppresses change reports involving changes in the value of enumerators of a given enum type. This
property is applied if the type_kind property is set to the value enum, at least. The value of the
changed_enumerators_regexp property is a comma-separated list of regular expressions that should match
the names of the enumerators that the user expects to change. For instance:
changed_enumerators_regexp = .*_MAX$, .*_LAST$, .*_NUM$, .*_NBITS$
In the example above, change reports to any enumerator which name ends with _MAX, _LAST, _NUM or _NBITS
will be suppressed.
Note that for this property to be applied to changes to an enum type, the size of the enum type must
NOT have changed.
• drop
Usage:
drop = yes | no
If a type is matched by a suppression specification which contains the “drop” property set to “yes”
(or to “true”) then the type is not even going to be represented in the internal representation of the
ABI being analyzed. This property makes its enclosing suppression specification to be applied in the
early suppression specification mode. The net effect is that it potentially reduces the amount of
memory used to represent the ABI being analyzed.
Please note that for struct, class or enum types matching a suppression specification with this
property having a value set to “yes” (or to “true”), if the specification also has a label property
with a value set to libabigail::OPAQUE_TYPE_LABEL, then the type is transformed into an opaque type,
rather than being just dropped on the floor. That also reduces the amount of memory used to represent
the ABI being analyzed, but with potentially less disruption in the resulting ABI representation.
Please note that for this property to be effective, the enclosing suppression specification must have
at least one of the following properties specified: name_regexp, name, name_regexp,
source_location_not_in or source_location_not_regexp.
• file_name_not_regexp
Usage:
file_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name does not
match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• file_name_regexp
Usage:
file_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name matches the
regular expression specified as value of this property.
• has_data_member
Usage:
has_data_member = <list-of-data-member-names>
Suppresses change reports involving a type which contains data members whose names are provided in the
list value of this property.
A usage examples of this property would be:
has_data_member = {private_data_member0, private_data_member1}
The property above would match any type which contains at least two data members whose names are
private_data_member0 and private_data_member1.
Another usage examples of this property would be:
has_data_member = another_private_data_member
The property above would match any type which contains a data member which name is
another_private_data_member0.
• has_data_member_regexp
Usage:
has_data_member_regexp = <a-regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving a type which contains data members whose names match the regular
expression provided as the value of this property.
A usage examples of this property would be:
has_data_member_regexp = ^private_data_member
The property above would match any type which contains data members whose names match the regular
expression ^private_data_member. In other words, it would match any type which contains data members
whose names start with the string “private_data_member”.
• has_data_member_inserted_at
Usage:
has_data_member_inserted_at = <offset-in-bit>
Suppresses change reports involving a type which has at least one data member inserted at an offset
specified by the property value offset-in-bit. Please note that if the size of the type changed, then
the type change will NOT be suppressed by the evaluation of this property, unless the has_size_change
property is present and set to yes.
The value offset-in-bit is either:
• an integer value, expressed in bits, which denotes the offset of the insertion point of the data
member, starting from the beginning of the relevant structure or class.
• data member offset selector expressions, such as:
• the keyword end which is a named constant which value equals the offset of the end of the
structure or class.
• the keyword offset_of_flexible_array_data_member which is a named constant that evaluates
to the offset of the flexible array data member contained in the relevant structure.
• the function call expression offset_of(data-member-name) where data-member-name is the name
of a given data member of the relevant structure or class. The value of this function call
expression is an integer that represents the offset of the data member denoted by
data-member-name.
• the function call expression offset_after(data-member-name) where data-member-name is the
name of a given data member of the relevant structure or class. The value of this function
call expression is an integer that represents the offset of the point that comes right
after the region occupied by the data member denoted by data-member-name.
• the function call expression offset_of_first_data_member_regexp(data-member-name-regexp)
where data-member-name-regexp is a regular expression matching a data member. The value of
this function call expression is an integer that represents the offset of the first data
member which name matches the regular expression argument. If no data member of a given
class type matches the regular expression, then the class type won’t match the current
directive.
• the function call expression offset_of_last_data_member_regexp(data-member-name-regexp)
where data-member-name-regexp is a regular expression matching a data member. The value of
this function call expression is an integer that represents the offset of the last data
member which name matches the regular expression argument. If no data member of a given
class type matches the regular expression, then the class type won’t match the current
directive.
• has_data_member_inserted_between
Usage:
has_data_member_inserted_between = {<range-begin>, <range-end>}
Suppresses change reports involving a type which has at least one data member inserted at an offset
that is comprised in the range between range-begin and range-end. Please note that each of the values
range-begin and range-end can be of the same form as the has_data_member_inserted_at property above.
Please also note that if the size of the type changed, then the type change will NOT be suppressed by
the evaluation of this property, unless the has_size_change property is present and set to yes. Note
that data member deletions happening in the range between range-begin and range-end won’t prevent the
type change from being suppressed by the evaluation of this property if the size of the type doesn’t
change or if the has_size_change property is present and set to yes.
Usage examples of this properties are:
has_data_member_inserted_between = {8, 64}
or:
has_data_member_inserted_between = {16, end}
or:
has_data_member_inserted_between = {offset_after(member1), end}
• has_data_members_inserted_between
Usage:
has_data_members_inserted_between = {<sequence-of-ranges>}
Suppresses change reports involving a type which has multiple data member inserted in various offset
ranges. A usage example of this property is, for instance:
has_data_members_inserted_between = {{8, 31}, {72, 95}}
This usage example suppresses change reports involving a type which has data members inserted in bit
offset ranges [8 31] and [72 95]. The length of the sequence of ranges or this
has_data_members_inserted_between is not bounded; it can be as long as the system can cope with. The
values of the boundaries of the ranges are of the same kind as for the has_data_member_inserted_at
property above. Please also note that if the size of the type changed, then the type will NOT be
suppressed by the evaluation of this property, unless the has_size_change property is present and set
to yes. Note that data member deletions happening in the defined ranges won’t prevent the type change
from being suppressed by the evaluation of this property if the size of the type doesn’t change or if
the has_size_change property is present and set to yes.
Another usage example of this property is thus:
has_data_members_inserted_between =
{
{offset_after(member0), offset_of(member1)},
{72, end}
}
• has_strict_flexible_array_data_member_conversion
Usage:
has_strict_flexible_array_data_member_conversion = yes | no
Suppresses change reports involving a type which has a “fake” flexible array member at the end of the
struct which is converted to a real flexible array member. This would be a member like data[1] being
converted to data[].
Please note that if the size of the type changed, then the type change will NOT be suppressed by the
evaluation of this property, unless the has_size_change property is present and set to yes.
• has_size_change
Usage:
has_size_change = yes | no
This property is to be used in conjunction with the properties has_data_member_inserted_between,
has_data_members_inserted_between, and has_strict_flexible_array_data_member_conversion Those properties
will not match a type change if the size of the type changes, unless the has_size_changes property is set
to yes.
• label
Usage:
label = <some-value>
Define a label for the section. In general, a label is just an informative string that might be used
by a tool to refer to a type suppression in error messages.
Note however that there are some special label values that can trigger a special kind of behavior.
Below are those special label values:
• libabigail::OPAQUE_TYPE_LABEL: A struct, class or enum type that matches a [suppress_type]
section with this label property value is going to be replaced by an opaque type of the same
kind. Note that an opaque type is essentially a declaration-only type, thus with no member.
Also note that for a [suppress_type] section with this label to trigger the transformation of a
type into an opaque type, the section must have the drop property value set to yes|true.
• name
Usage:
name = <a-value>
Suppresses change reports involving types whose name equals the value of this property.
• name_not_regexp
Usage:
name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving types whose name does NOT match the regular expression specified
as value of this property. Said otherwise, this property specifies which types to keep, rather than
types to suppress from reports.
• name_regexp
Usage:
name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving types whose name matches the regular expression specified as value
of this property.
• soname_not_regexp
Usage:
soname_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property does not match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• soname_regexp
Usage:
soname_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property matches the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• source_location_not_in
Usage:
source_location_not_in = <list-of-file-paths>
Suppresses change reports involving a type which is defined in a file which path is NOT listed in the
value list-of-file-paths. Note that the value is a comma-separated list of file paths e.g, this
property
source_location_not_in = libabigail/abg-ir.h, libabigail/abg-dwarf-reader.h
suppresses change reports about all the types that are NOT defined in header files whose path end up
with the strings libabigail/abg-ir.h or libabigail/abg-dwarf-reader.h.
• source_location_not_regexp
Usage:
source_location_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving a type which is defined in a file which path does NOT match the
regular expression provided as value of the property. E.g, this property
source_location_not_regexp = libabigail/abg-.*\\.h
suppresses change reports involving all the types that are NOT defined in header files whose path
match the regular expression provided a value of the property.
• type_kind
Usage:
type_kind = class | struct | union | enum |
array | typedef | builtin
Suppresses change reports involving a certain kind of type. The kind of type to suppress change
reports for is specified by the possible values listed above:
•
class: suppress change reports for class types. Note that
even if class types don’t exist for C, this value still triggers the suppression of
change reports for struct types, in C. In C++ however, it should do what it suggests.
•
struct: suppress change reports for struct types in C or C++.
Note that the value class above is a super-set of this one.
• union: suppress change reports for union types.
• enum: suppress change reports for enum types.
• array: suppress change reports for array types.
• typedef: suppress change reports for typedef types.
• builtin: suppress change reports for built-in (or native) types. Example of built-in types are
char, int, unsigned int, etc.
[suppress_function]
This directive suppresses report messages about changes on a set of functions.
Note that for the [suppress_function] directive to work, at least one of the following properties must be
provided:
label, file_name_regexp, file_name_not_regexp, soname_regexp, soname_not_regexp, name, name_regexp,
name_not_regexp, parameter, return_type_name, return_type_regexp, symbol_name, symbol_name_regexp,
symbol_name_not_regexp, symbol_version, symbol_version_regexp.
If none of the above properties are provided, then the [suppress_function] directive is simply ignored.
The potential properties of this sections are:
• change_kind
Usage:
change_kind = <predefined-possible-values>
Specifies the kind of changes this suppression specification should apply to. The possible values of
this property as well as their meaning are listed below:
• function-subtype-change
This suppression specification applies to functions that which have at least one sub-type that
has changed.
• added-function
This suppression specification applies to functions that have been added to the binary.
• deleted-function
This suppression specification applies to functions that have been removed from the binary.
• all
This suppression specification applies to functions that have all of the changes above. Note
that not providing the change_kind property at all is equivalent to setting it to the value all.
• drop
Usage:
drop = yes | no
If a function is matched by a suppression specification which contains the “drop” property set to
“yes” (or to “true”) then the function is not even going to be represented in the internal
representation of the ABI being analyzed. This property makes its enclosing suppression specification
to be applied in the early suppression specification mode. The net effect is that it potentially
reduces the memory used to represent the ABI being analyzed.
Please note that for this property to be effective, the enclosing suppression specification must have
at least one of the following properties specified: name_regexp, name, name_regexp,
source_location_not_in or source_location_not_regexp.
• file_name_not_regexp
Usage:
file_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name does not
match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• file_name_regexp
Usage:
file_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name matches the
regular expression specified as value of this property.
• label
Usage:
label = <some-value>
This property is the same as the label property defined above.
• name
Usage:
name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose name equals the value of this property.
• name_not_regexp
Usage:
name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose names don’t match the regular expression specified
as value of this property.
The rules for functions that have several symbol names are the same rules as for the name_regexp
property above.
• name_regexp
Usage:
name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose name matches the regular expression specified as
value of this property.
Let’s consider the case of functions that have several symbol names. This happens when the underlying
symbol for the function has aliases. Each symbol name is actually one alias name.
In this case, if the regular expression matches the name of at least one of the aliases names, then it
must match the names of all of the aliases of the function for the directive to actually suppress the
diff reports for said function.
• parameter
Usage:
parameter = <function-parameter-specification>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose parameters match the parameter specification
indicated as value of this property.
The format of the function parameter specification is:
' <parameter-index> <space> <type-name-or-regular-expression>
That is, an apostrophe followed by a number that is the index of the parameter, followed by one of
several spaces, followed by either the name of the type of the parameter, or a regular expression
describing a family of parameter type names.
If the parameter type name is designated by a regular expression, then said regular expression must be
enclosed between two slashes; like /some-regular-expression/.
The index of the first parameter of the function is zero. Note that for member functions (methods of
classes), the this is the first parameter that comes after the implicit “this” pointer parameter.
Examples of function parameter specifications are:
'0 int
Which means, the parameter at index 0, whose type name is int.
'4 unsigned char*
Which means, the parameter at index 4, whose type name is unsigned char*.
'2 /^foo.*&/
Which means, the parameter at index 2, whose type name starts with the string “foo” and ends with an
‘&’. In other words, this is the third parameter and it’s a reference on a type that starts with the
string “foo”.
• return_type_name
Usage:
return_type_name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose return type name equals the value of this
property.
• return_type_regexp
Usage:
return_type_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose return type name matches the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
• soname_regexp
Usage:
soname_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property matches the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• soname_not_regexp
Usage:
soname_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property does not match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• symbol_name
Usage:
symbol_name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose symbol name equals the value of this property.
• symbol_name_regexp
Usage:
symbol_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose symbol name matches the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
Let’s consider the case of functions that have several symbol names. This happens when the underlying
symbol for the function has aliases. Each symbol name is actually one alias name.
In this case, the regular expression must match the names of all of the aliases of the function for
the directive to actually suppress the diff reports for said function.
• symbol_name_not_regexp
Usage:
symbol_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose symbol name does not match the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
• symbol_version
Usage:
symbol_version = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose symbol version equals the value of this property.
• symbol_version_regexp
Usage:
symbol_version_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving functions whose symbol version matches the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
[suppress_variable]
This directive suppresses report messages about changes on a set of variables.
Note that for the [suppress_variable] directive to work, at least one of the following properties must be
provided:
label, file_name_regexp, file_name_not_regexp, soname_regexp, soname_not_regexp, name, name_regexp,
name_not_regexp, symbol_name, symbol_name_regexp, symbol_name_not_regexp, symbol_version,
symbol_version_regexp, type_name, type_name_regexp.
If none of the above properties are provided, then the [suppress_variable] directive is simply ignored.
The potential properties of this sections are:
• label
Usage:
label = <some-value>
This property is the same as the label property defined above.
• file_name_regexp
Usage:
file_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name matches the
regular expression specified as value of this property.
• file_name_not_regexp
Usage:
file_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a binary file which name does not
match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• soname_regexp
Usage:
soname_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property matches the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• soname_not_regexp
Usage:
soname_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports about ABI artifacts that are defined in a shared library which SONAME
property does not match the regular expression specified as value of this property.
• name
Usage:
name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose name equals the value of this property.
• name_regexp
Usage:
name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose name matches the regular expression specified as
value of this property.
• change_kind
Usage:
change_kind = <predefined-possible-values>
Specifies the kind of changes this suppression specification should apply to. The possible values of
this property as well as their meaning are the same as when it’s used in the [suppress_function]
section.
• symbol_name
Usage:
symbol_name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose symbol name equals the value of this property.
• symbol_name_regexp
Usage:
symbol_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose symbol name matches the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
• symbol_name_not_regexp
Usage:
symbol_name_not_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose symbol name does not match the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
• symbol_version
Usage:
symbol_version = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose symbol version equals the value of this property.
• symbol_version_regexp
Usage:
symbol_version_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose symbol version matches the regular expression
specified as value of this property.
• type_name
Usage:
type_name = <some-value>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose type name equals the value of this property.
• type_name_regexp
Usage:
type_name_regexp = <regular-expression>
Suppresses change reports involving variables whose type name matches the regular expression specified
as value of this property.
Comments
; or # ASCII character at the beginning of a line indicates a comment. Comment lines are ignored.
Code examples
1. Suppressing change reports about types.
Suppose we have a library named libtest1-v0.so which contains this very useful code:
$ cat -n test1-v0.cc
1 // A forward declaration for a type considered to be opaque to
2 // function foo() below.
3 struct opaque_type;
4
5 // This function cannot touch any member of opaque_type. Hence,
6 // changes to members of opaque_type should not impact foo, as far as
7 // ABI is concerned.
8 void
9 foo(opaque_type*)
10 {
11 }
12
13 struct opaque_type
14 {
15 int member0;
16 char member1;
17 };
$
Let’s change the layout of struct opaque_type by inserting a data member around line 15, leading to a new
version of the library, that we shall name libtest1-v1.so:
$ cat -n test1-v1.cc
1 // A forward declaration for a type considered to be opaque to
2 // function foo() below.
3 struct opaque_type;
4
5 // This function cannot touch any member of opaque_type; Hence,
6 // changes to members of opaque_type should not impact foo, as far as
7 // ABI is concerned.
8 void
9 foo(opaque_type*)
10 {
11 }
12
13 struct opaque_type
14 {
15 char added_member; // <-- a new member got added here now.
16 int member0;
17 char member1;
18 };
$
Let’s compile both examples. We shall not forget to compile them with debug information generation
turned on:
$ g++ -shared -g -Wall -o libtest1-v0.so test1-v0.cc
$ g++ -shared -g -Wall -o libtest1-v1.so test1-v1.cc
Let’s ask abidiff which ABI differences it sees between libtest1-v0.so and libtest1-v1.so:
$ abidiff libtest1-v0.so libtest1-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void foo(opaque_type*)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'opaque_type*' has sub-type changes:
in pointed to type 'struct opaque_type':
size changed from 64 to 96 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char opaque_type::added_member', at offset 0 (in bits)
2 data member changes:
'int opaque_type::member0' offset changed from 0 to 32
'char opaque_type::member1' offset changed from 32 to 64
So abidiff reports that the opaque_type’s layout has changed in a significant way, as far as ABI
implications are concerned, in theory. After all, a sub-type (struct opaque_type) of an exported
function (foo()) has seen its layout change. This might have non negligible ABI implications. But in
practice here, the programmer of the litest1-v1.so library knows that the “soft” contract between the
function foo() and the type struct opaque_type is to stay away from the data members of the type. So
layout changes of struct opaque_type should not impact foo().
Now to teach abidiff about this soft contract and have it avoid emitting what amounts to false positives
in this case, we write the suppression specification file below:
$ cat test1.suppr
[suppress_type]
type_kind = struct
name = opaque_type
Translated in plain English, this suppression specification would read: “Do not emit change reports about
a struct which name is opaque_type”.
Let’s now invoke abidiff on the two versions of the library again, but this time with the suppression
specification:
$ abidiff --suppressions test1.suppr libtest1-v0.so libtest1-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed (1 filtered out), 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
As you can see, abidiff does not report the change anymore; it tells us that it was filtered out instead.
Suppressing change reports about types with data member insertions
Suppose the first version of a library named libtest3-v0.so has this source code:
/* Compile this with:
gcc -g -Wall -shared -o libtest3-v0.so test3-v0.c
*/
struct S
{
char member0;
int member1; /*
between member1 and member2, there is some padding,
at least on some popular platforms. On
these platforms, adding a small enough data
member into that padding shouldn't change
the offset of member1. Right?
*/
};
int
foo(struct S* s)
{
return s->member0 + s->member1;
}
Now, suppose the second version of the library named libtest3-v1.so has this source code in which a data
member has been added in the padding space of struct S and another data member has been added at its end:
/* Compile this with:
gcc -g -Wall -shared -o libtest3-v1.so test3-v1.c
*/
struct S
{
char member0;
char inserted1; /* <---- A data member has been added here... */
int member1;
char inserted2; /* <---- ... and another one has been added here. */
};
int
foo(struct S* s)
{
return s->member0 + s->member1;
}
In libtest3-v1.so, adding char data members S::inserted1 and S::inserted2 can be considered harmless
(from an ABI compatibility perspective), at least on the x86 platform, because that doesn’t change the
offsets of the data members S::member0 and S::member1. But then running abidiff on these two versions of
library yields:
$ abidiff libtest3-v0.so libtest3-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function int foo(S*)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'S*' has sub-type changes:
in pointed to type 'struct S':
type size changed from 64 to 96 bits
2 data member insertions:
'char S::inserted1', at offset 8 (in bits)
'char S::inserted2', at offset 64 (in bits)
$
That is, abidiff shows us the two changes, even though we (the developers of that very involved library)
know that these changes are harmless in this particular context.
Luckily, we can devise a suppression specification that essentially tells abidiff to filter out change
reports about adding a data member between S::member0 and S::member1, and adding a data member at the end
of struct S. We have written such a suppression specification in a file called test3-1.suppr and it
unsurprisingly looks like:
[suppress_type]
name = S
has_data_member_inserted_between = {offset_after(member0), offset_of(member1)}
has_data_member_inserted_at = end
Now running abidiff with this suppression specification yields:
$ ../build/tools/abidiff --suppressions test3-1.suppr libtest3-v0.so libtest3-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed (1 filtered out), 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
$
Hooora! \o/ (I guess)
Suppressing change reports about types accessed either directly or through pointers
Suppose we have a first version of an object file which source code is the file widget-v0.cc below:
// Compile with: g++ -g -c widget-v0.cc
struct widget
{
int x;
int y;
widget()
:x(), y()
{}
};
void
fun0(widget*)
{
// .. do stuff here.
}
void
fun1(widget&)
{
// .. do stuff here ..
}
void
fun2(widget w)
{
// ... do other stuff here ...
}
Now suppose in the second version of that file, named widget-v1.cc, we have added some data members at
the end of the type struct widget; here is what the content of that file would look like:
// Compile with: g++ -g -c widget-v1.cc
struct widget
{
int x;
int y;
int w; // We have added these two new data members here ..
int h; // ... and here.
widget()
: x(), y(), w(), h()
{}
};
void
fun0(widget*)
{
// .. do stuff here.
}
void
fun1(widget&)
{
// .. do stuff here ..
}
void
fun2(widget w)
{
// ... do other stuff here ...
}
When we invoke abidiff on the object files resulting from the compilation of the two file above, here is
what we get:
$ abidiff widget-v0.o widget-v1.o
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 2 Changed (1 filtered out), 0 Added functions
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
2 functions with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fun0(widget*)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'widget*' has sub-type changes:
in pointed to type 'struct widget':
type size changed from 64 to 128 bits
2 data member insertions:
'int widget::w', at offset 64 (in bits)
'int widget::h', at offset 96 (in bits)
[C]'function void fun2(widget)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'struct widget' has sub-type changes:
details were reported earlier
$
I guess a little bit of explaining is due here. abidiff detects that two data member got added at the
end of struct widget. it also tells us that the type change impacts the exported function fun0() which
uses the type struct widget through a pointer, in its signature.
Careful readers will notice that the change to struct widget also impacts the exported function fun1(),
that uses type struct widget through a reference. But then abidiff doesn’t tell us about the impact on
that function fun1() because it has evaluated that change as being redundant with the change it reported
on fun0(). It has thus filtered it out, to avoid cluttering the output with noise.
Redundancy detection and filtering is fine and helpful to avoid burying the important information in a
sea of noise. However, it must be treated with care, by fear of mistakenly filtering out relevant and
important information.
That is why abidiff tells us about the impact that the change to struct widget has on function fun2().
In this case, that function uses the type struct widget directly (in its signature). It does not use it
via a pointer or a reference. In this case, the direct use of this type causes fun2() to be exposed to a
potentially harmful ABI change. Hence, the report about fun2() is not filtered out, even though it’s
about that same change on struct widget.
To go further in suppressing reports about changes that are harmless and keeping only those that we know
are harmful, we would like to go tell abidiff to suppress reports about this particular struct widget
change when it impacts uses of struct widget through a pointer or reference. In other words, suppress
the change reports about fun0() and fun1(). We would then write this suppression specification, in file
widget.suppr:
[suppress_type]
name = widget
type_kind = struct
has_data_member_inserted_at = end
accessed_through = reference-or-pointer
# So this suppression specification says to suppress reports about
# the type 'struct widget', if this type was added some data member
# at its end, and if the change impacts uses of the type through a
# reference or a pointer.
Invoking abidiff on widget-v0.o and widget-v1.o with this suppression specification yields:
$ abidiff --suppressions widget.suppr widget-v0.o widget-v1.o
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed (2 filtered out), 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fun2(widget)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'struct widget' has sub-type changes:
type size changed from 64 to 128 bits
2 data member insertions:
'int widget::w', at offset 64 (in bits)
'int widget::h', at offset 96 (in bits)
$
As expected, I guess.
Suppressing change reports about functions.
Suppose we have a first version a library named libtest2-v0.so whose source code is:
$ cat -n test2-v0.cc
1 struct S1
2 {
3 int m0;
4
5 S1()
6 : m0()
7 {}
8 };
9
10 struct S2
11 {
12 int m0;
13
14 S2()
15 : m0()
16 {}
17 };
18
19 struct S3
20 {
21 int m0;
22
23 S3()
24 : m0()
25 {}
26 };
27
28 int
29 func(S1&)
30 {
31 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
32 return 0;
33
34 }
35
36 char
37 func(S2*)
38 {
39 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
40 return 0;
41 }
42
43 unsigned
44 func(S3)
45 {
46 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
47 return 0;
48 }
$
And then we come up with a second version libtest2-v1.so of that library; the source code is modified by
making the structures S1, S2, S3 inherit another struct:
$ cat -n test2-v1.cc
1 struct base_type
2 {
3 int m_inserted;
4 };
5
6 struct S1 : public base_type // <--- S1 now has base_type as its base
7 // type.
8 {
9 int m0;
10
11 S1()
12 : m0()
13 {}
14 };
15
16 struct S2 : public base_type // <--- S2 now has base_type as its base
17 // type.
18 {
19 int m0;
20
21 S2()
22 : m0()
23 {}
24 };
25
26 struct S3 : public base_type // <--- S3 now has base_type as its base
27 // type.
28 {
29 int m0;
30
31 S3()
32 : m0()
33 {}
34 };
35
36 int
37 func(S1&)
38 {
39 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
40 return 0;
41
42 }
43
44 char
45 func(S2*)
46 {
47 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
48 return 0;
49 }
50
51 unsigned
52 func(S3)
53 {
54 // suppose the code does something with the argument.
55 return 0;
56 }
$
Now let’s build the two libraries:
g++ -Wall -g -shared -o libtest2-v0.so test2-v0.cc
g++ -Wall -g -shared -o libtest2-v0.so test2-v0.cc
Let’s look at the output of abidiff:
$ abidiff libtest2-v0.so libtest2-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 3 Changed, 0 Added functions
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
3 functions with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function unsigned int func(S3)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'struct S3' has sub-type changes:
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct base_type
1 data member change:
'int S3::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
[C]'function char func(S2*)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'S2*' has sub-type changes:
in pointed to type 'struct S2':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct base_type
1 data member change:
'int S2::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
[C]'function int func(S1&)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'S1&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct S1':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct base_type
1 data member change:
'int S1::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
$
Let’s tell abidiff to avoid showing us the differences on the overloads of func that takes either a
pointer or a reference. For that, we author this simple suppression specification:
$ cat -n libtest2.suppr
1 [suppress_function]
2 name = func
3 parameter = '0 S1&
4
5 [suppress_function]
6 name = func
7 parameter = '0 S2*
$
And then let’s invoke abidiff with the suppression specification:
$ ../build/tools/abidiff --suppressions libtest2.suppr libtest2-v0.so libtest2-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed (2 filtered out), 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function unsigned int func(S3)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'struct S3' has sub-type changes:
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct base_type
1 data member change:
'int S3::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
The suppression specification could be reduced using regular expressions:
$ cat -n libtest2-1.suppr
1 [suppress_function]
2 name = func
3 parameter = '0 /^S.(&|\\*)/
$
$ ../build/tools/abidiff --suppressions libtest2-1.suppr libtest2-v0.so libtest2-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed (2 filtered out), 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function unsigned int func(S3)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'struct S3' has sub-type changes:
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct base_type
1 data member change:
'int S3::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
$
TOOLS
Overview
The upstream code repository of Libabigail contains several tools written using the library. They are
maintained and released as part of the project. All tools come with a bash-completion script.
Tools manuals
abidiff
abidiff compares the Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) of two shared libraries in ELF format. It emits
a meaningful report describing the differences between the two ABIs.
This tool can also compare the textual representations of the ABI of two ELF binaries (as emitted by
abidw) or an ELF binary against a textual representation of another ELF binary.
For a comprehensive ABI change report between two input shared libraries that includes changes about
function and variable sub-types, abidiff uses by default, debug information in DWARF format, if present,
otherwise it compares interfaces using debug information in CTF or BTF formats, if present. Finally, if
no debug info in these formats is found, it only considers ELF symbols and report about their addition or
removal.
This tool uses the libabigail library to analyze the binary as well as its associated debug information.
Here is its general mode of operation.
When instructed to do so, a binary and its associated debug information is read and analyzed. To that
effect, libabigail analyzes by default the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) that are visible outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an Application Binary Interface Corpus is constructed by only considering the subset of types
reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It’s
that final ABI corpus which libabigail considers as representing the ABI of the analyzed binary.
Libabigail then has capabilities to generate textual representations of ABI Corpora, compare them,
analyze their changes and report about them.
Invocation
abidiff [options] <first-shared-library> <second-shared-library>
Environment
abidiff loads two default suppression specifications files, merges their content and use it to filter out
ABI change reports that might be considered as false positives to users.
• Default system-wide suppression specification file
It’s located by the optional environment variable LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that
environment variable is not set, then abidiff tries to load the suppression file
$libdir/libabigail/libabigail-default.abignore. If that file is not present, then no default
system-wide suppression specification file is loaded.
• Default user suppression specification file.
It’s located by the optional environment LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_USER_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that environment
variable is not set, then abidiff tries to load the suppression file $HOME/.abignore. If that file is
not present, then no default user suppression specification is loaded.
Options
• --add-binaries1 <bin1,bin2,bin3,..>
For each of the comma-separated binaries given in argument to this option, if the binary is found in
the directory specified by the --added-binaries-dir1 option, then abidiff loads the ABI corpus of
the binary and adds it to a set of corpora (called an ABI Corpus Group) that includes the first
argument of abidiff.
That ABI corpus group is then compared against the second corpus group given in argument to abidiff.
• --add-binaries2 <bin1,bin2,bin3,..>
For each of the comma-separated binaries given in argument to this option, if the binary is found in
the directory specified by the --added-binaries-dir2 option, then abidiff loads the ABI corpus of
the binary and adds it to a set of corpora(called an ABI Corpus Group) that includes the second
argument of abidiff.
That ABI corpus group is then compared against the first corpus group given in argument to abidiff.
• --added-binaries-dir1 | --abd1 <added-binaries-directory-1>
This option is to be used in conjunction with the --add-binaries1, --follow-dependencies and
--list-dependencies options. Binaries referred to by these options, if found in the directory
added-binaries-directory-1, are loaded as ABI corpus and are added to the first ABI corpus group
that is to be used in the comparison.
• --added-binaries-dir2 | --abd2 <added-binaries-directory-2>
This option is to be used in conjunction with the --add-binaries2, --follow-dependencies and
--list-dependencies options. Binaries referred to by these options, if found in the directory
added-binaries-directory-2, are loaded as ABI corpus and are added to the second ABI corpus group to
be used in the comparison.
• --added-fns
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the globally defined functions that were added to
second-shared-library.
• --added-vars
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the global variables that were added (defined) to
second-shared-library.
• --allow-non-exported-interfaces
When looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the descriptions of
the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible outside of their
translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only considering the
subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by
the binary. It’s those final ABI Corpora that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI Corpora like these can be extremely slow.
In the presence of an “average sized” binary however one can afford having libabigail analyze all
interfaces that are visible outside of their translation unit, using this option.
Note that this option is turned on by default, unless we are in the presence of the Linux Kernel.
• --btf
When comparing binaries, extract ABI information from BTF debug information, if present.
• --changed-fns
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the changes in sub-types of the global functions defined in
first-shared-library.
• --changed-vars
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the changes in the sub-types of the global variables defined in
first-shared-library
• --ctf
When comparing binaries, extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present.
• --debug-info-dir1 | --d1 <di-path1>
For cases where the debug information for first-shared-library is split out into a separate file,
tells abidiff where to find that separate debug information file.
Note that di-path must point to the root directory under which the debug information is arranged in
a tree-like manner. Under Red Hat based systems, that directory is usually <root>/usr/lib/debug.
This option can be provided several times with different root directories. In that case, abidiff
will potentially look into all those root directories to find the split debug info for
first-shared-library.
Note also that this option is not mandatory for split debug information installed by your system’s
package manager because then abidiff knows where to find it.
• --debug-info-dir2 | --d2 <di-path2>
Like --debug-info-dir1, this options tells abidiff where to find the split debug information for the
second-shared-library file.
This option can be provided several times with different root directories. In that case, abidiff
will potentially look into all those root directories to find the split debug info for
second-shared-library.
• --debug-self-comparison
In this mode, error messages are emitted for types which fail type canonicalization, in some
circumstances, when comparing a binary against itself.
When comparing a binary against itself, canonical types of the second binary should be equal (as
much as possible) to canonical types of the first binary. When some discrepancies are detected in
this mode, an abort signal is emitted and execution is halted. This option should be used while
executing the tool in a debugger, for troubleshooting purposes.
This is an optional debugging and sanity check option. To enable it the libabigail package needs to
be configured with the –enable-debug-self-comparison configure option.
• --debug-tc
In this mode, the process of type canonicalization is put under heavy scrutiny. Basically, during
type canonicalization, each type comparison is performed twice: once in a structural mode (comparing
every sub-type member-wise), and once using canonical comparison. The two comparisons should yield
the same result. Otherwise, an abort signal is emitted and the process can be debugged to
understand why the two kinds of comparison yield different results.
This is an optional debugging and sanity check option. To enable it the libabigail package needs to
be configured with the –enable-debug-type-canonicalization configure option.
• --deleted-fns
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the globally defined functions that got deleted from
first-shared-library.
• --deleted-vars
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, only display the globally defined variables that were deleted from
first-shared-library.
• --drop <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, drop the globally
defined functions and variables which name match the regular expression regex. As a result, no
change involving these functions or variables will be emitted in the diff report.
• --drop-fn <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, drop the globally
defined functions which name match the regular expression regex. As a result, no change involving
these functions will be emitted in the diff report.
• --drop-var <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, drop the globally
defined variables matching a the regular expression regex.
• --drop-private-types
This option is to be used with the --headers-dir1, header-file1, header-file2 and --headers-dir2
options. With this option, types that are NOT defined in the headers are entirely dropped from the
internal representation build by Libabigail to represent the ABI. They thus don’t have to be
filtered out from the final ABI change report because they are not even present in Libabigail’s
representation.
Without this option however, those private types are kept in the internal representation and later
filtered out from the report.
This options thus potentially makes Libabigail consume less memory. It’s meant to be mainly used to
optimize the memory consumption of the tool on binaries with a lot of publicly defined and exported
types.
• --dump-diff-tree
After the diff report, emit a textual representation of the diff nodes tree used by the comparison
engine to represent the changed functions and variables. That representation is emitted to the
error output for debugging purposes. Note that this diff tree is relevant only to functions and
variables that have some sub-type changes. Added or removed functions and variables do not have
any diff nodes tree associated to them.
• --exported-interfaces-only
By default, when looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the
descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible
outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only
considering the subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined
and exported by the binary. It’s those final ABI Corpora that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI corpora like these can be extremely slow.
To mitigate that performance issue, this option allows libabigail to only analyze types that are
reachable from interfaces associated with defined and exported ELF symbols.
Note that this option is turned on by default when analyzing the Linux Kernel. Otherwise, it’s
turned off by default.
• --fail-no-debug-info
If no debug info was found, then this option makes the program to fail. Otherwise, without this
option, the program will attempt to compare properties of the binaries that are not related to debug
info, like pure ELF properties.
• --follow-dependencies | --fdeps
For each dependency of the first argument of abidiff, if it’s found in the directory specified by
the --added-binaries-dir1 option, then construct an ABI corpus out of the dependency, add it to a
set of corpora (called an ABI Corpus Group) that includes the first argument of abidiff.
Similarly, for each dependency of the second argument of abidiff, if it’s found in the directory
specified by the --added-binaries-dir2 option, then construct an ABI corpus out of the dependency,
add it to an ABI corpus group that includes the second argument of abidiff.
These two ABI corpus groups are then compared against each other.
Said otherwise, this makes abidiff compare the set of its first input and its dependencies against
the set of its second input and its dependencies.
• --harmless
In the diff report, display only the harmless changes. By default, the harmless changes are
filtered out of the diff report keep the clutter to a minimum and have a greater chance to spot real
ABI issues.
• --headers-dir1 | --hd1 <headers-directory-path-1>
Specifies where to find the public headers of the first shared library (or binary in general) that
the tool has to consider. The tool will thus filter out ABI changes on types that are not defined
in public headers.
Note that several public header directories can be specified for the first shared library. In that
case the --headers-dir1 option should be present several times on the command line, like in the
following example:
$ abidiff --headers-dir1 /some/path \
--headers-dir1 /some/other/path \
binary-version-1 binary-version-2
• --headers-dir2 | --hd2 <headers-directory-path-2>
Specifies where to find the public headers of the second shared library that the tool has to
consider. The tool will thus filter out ABI changes on types that are not defined in public
headers.
Note that several public header directories can be specified for the second shared library. In that
case the --headers-dir2 option should be present several times like in the following example:
$ abidiff --headers-dir2 /some/path \
--headers-dir2 /some/other/path \
binary-version-1 binary-version-2
• --header-file1 | --hf1 <header-file-path-1>
Specifies where to find one public header of the first shared library that the tool has to consider.
The tool will thus filter out ABI changes on types that are not defined in public headers.
• --header-file2 | --hf2 <header-file-path-2>
Specifies where to find one public header of the second shared library that the tool has to
consider. The tool will thus filter out ABI changes on types that are not defined in public
headers.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --ignore-soname
Ignore differences in the SONAME when doing a comparison
• --impacted-interfaces
When showing leaf changes, this option instructs abidiff to show the list of impacted interfaces.
This option is thus to be used in addition the --leaf-changes-only option, otherwise, it’s ignored.
• --keep <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, keep the globally
defined functions and variables which names match the regular expression regex. All other functions
and variables are dropped on the floor and will thus not appear in the resulting diff report.
• --keep-fn <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, keep the globally
defined functions which name match the regular expression regex. All other functions are dropped on
the floor and will thus not appear in the resulting diff report.
• --keep-var <regex>
When reading the first-shared-library and second-shared-library ELF input files, keep the globally
defined which names match the regular expression regex. All other variables are dropped on the
floor and will thus not appear in the resulting diff report.
• --kmi-whitelist | -w <path-to-whitelist>
When analyzing a Linux kernel binary, this option points to the white list of names of ELF symbols
of functions and variables which ABI must be considered. That white list is called a “Kernel Module
Interface white list”. This is because for the Kernel, we don’t talk about ABI; we rather talk
about the interface between the Kernel and its module. Hence the term KMI rather than ABI.
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not present in that white list will not be
considered by this tool.
If this option is not provided – thus if no white list is provided – then the entire KMI, that is,
the set of all publicly defined and exported functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel
binaries, is considered.
• --leaf-changes-only|-l only show leaf changes, so don’t show impact analysis report. This option
implies --redundant.
The typical output of abidiff when comparing two binaries looks like this
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fn(C&)' at test-v1.cc:13:1 has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'C&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct C' at test-v1.cc:7:1:
type size hasn't changed
1 data member change:
type of 'leaf* C::m0' changed:
in pointed to type 'struct leaf' at test-v1.cc:1:1:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
$
So in that example the report emits information about how the data member insertion change of
“struct leaf” is reachable from function “void fn(C&)”. In other words, the report not only shows
the data member change on “struct leaf”, but it also shows the impact of that change on the function
“void fn(C&)”.
In abidiff parlance, the change on “struct leaf” is called a leaf change. So the
--leaf-changes-only --impacted-interfaces options show, well, only the leaf change. And it goes
like this:
$ abidiff -l libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
'struct leaf' changed:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
one impacted interface:
function void fn(C&)
$
Note how the report ends by showing the list of interfaces impacted by the leaf change.
Now if you don’t want to see that list of impacted interfaces, then you can just avoid using the
--impacted-interface option. You can learn about that option below, in any case.
• --list-dependencies | --ldeps
This option lists all the dependencies of the input arguments of abidiff that are found in the
directories specified by the options --added-binaries-dir1 and --added-binaries-dir2
• --no-added-syms
In the resulting report about the differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, do not display added functions or variables. Do not display added functions
or variables ELF symbols either. All other kinds of changes are displayed unless they are
explicitely forbidden by other options on the command line.
• --no-assume-odr-for-cplusplus
When analyzing a binary originating from C++ code using DWARF debug information, libabigail assumes
the One Definition Rule to speed-up the analysis. In that case, when several types have the same
name in the binary, they are assumed to all be equal.
This option disables that assumption and instructs libabigail to actually actually compare the types
to determine if they are equal.
• --no-architecture
Do not take architecture in account when comparing ABIs.
• --no-change-categorization | -x
This option disables the categorization of changes into harmless and harmful changes. Note that
this categorization is a pre-requisite for the filtering of changes so this option disables that
filtering. The goal of this option is to speed-up the execution of the program for cases where the
graph of changes is huge and where the user is just interested in looking at, for instance, leaf
node changes without caring about their possible impact on interfaces. In that case, this option
would be used along with the --leaf-changes-only one.
• --no-corpus-path
Do not emit the path attribute for the ABI corpus.
• --no-default-suppression
Do not load the default suppression specification files.
• --no-harmful
In the diff report, do not display the harmful changes. By default, only the harmful changes are
displayed in diff report.
• --no-leverage-dwarf-factorization
When analyzing a binary which DWARF debug information was processed with the DWZ tool, the type
information is supposed to be already factorized. That context is used by libabigail to perform
some speed optimizations.
This option disables those optimizations.
• --no-linkage-name
In the resulting report, do not display the linkage names of the added, removed, or changed
functions or variables.
• --no-linux-kernel-mode
Without this option, if abidiff detects that the binaries it is looking at are Linux Kernel binaries
(either vmlinux or modules) then it only considers functions and variables which ELF symbols are
listed in the __ksymtab and __ksymtab_gpl sections.
With this option, abidiff considers the binary as a non-special ELF binary. It thus considers
functions and variables which are defined and exported in the ELF sense.
• --no-redundant
In the diff report, do NOT display redundant changes. A redundant change is a change that has been
displayed elsewhere in the report. This option is switched on by default.
• --no-show-locs
Do not show information about where in the second shared library the respective type was changed.
• --no-show-relative-offset-changes
Without this option, when the offset of a data member changes, the change report not only mentions
the older and newer offset, but it also mentions by how many bits the data member changes. With
this option, the latter is not shown.
• --no-unreferenced-symbols
In the resulting report, do not display change information about function and variable symbols that
are not referenced by any debug information. Note that for these symbols not referenced by any
debug information, the change information displayed is either added or removed symbols.
• --non-reachable-types|-t
Analyze and emit change reports for all the types of the binary, including those that are not
reachable from global functions and variables.
This option might incur some serious performance degradation as the number of types analyzed can be
huge. However, if paired with the --headers-dir{1,2} and/or header-file{1,2} options, the
additional non-reachable types analyzed are restricted to those defined in public headers files,
thus hopefully making the performance hit acceptable.
Also, using this option alongside suppression specifications (by also using the --suppressions
option) might help keep the number of analyzed types (and the potential performance degradation) in
control.
Note that without this option, only types that are reachable from global functions and variables are
analyzed, so the tool detects and reports changes on these reachable types only.
• --redundant
In the diff report, do display redundant changes. A redundant change is a change that has been
displayed elsewhere in the report.
• --show-bits
Show sizes and offsets in bits, not bytes. This option is activated by default.
• --show-bytes
Show sizes and offsets in bytes, not bits. By default, sizes and offsets are shown in bits.
• --show-dec
Show sizes and offsets in decimal base. This option is activated by default.
• --show-hex
Show sizes and offsets in hexadecimal base.
• --stat
Rather than displaying the detailed ABI differences between first-shared-library and
second-shared-library, just display some summary statistics about these differences.
• --stats
Emit statistics about various internal things.
• --suppressions | --suppr <path-to-suppressions>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppressions. Note that this option can
appear multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the provided suppression
specification files are taken into account.
Please note that, by default, if this option is not provided, then the default suppression
specification files are loaded .
• --symtabs
Only display the symbol tables of the first-shared-library and second-shared-library.
• --verbose
Emit verbose logs about the progress of miscellaneous internal things.
• --version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
Return values
The exit code of the abidiff command is either 0 if the ABI of the binaries being compared are equal, or
non-zero if they differ or if the tool encountered an error.
In the later case, the exit code is a 8-bits-wide bit field in which each bit has a specific meaning.
The first bit, of value 1, named ABIDIFF_ERROR means there was an error.
The second bit, of value 2, named ABIDIFF_USAGE_ERROR means there was an error in the way the user
invoked the tool. It might be set, for instance, if the user invoked the tool with an unknown command
line switch, with a wrong number or argument, etc. If this bit is set, then the ABIDIFF_ERROR bit must
be set as well.
The third bit, of value 4, named ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE means the ABI of the binaries being compared are
different.
The fourth bit, of value 8, named ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE means the ABI of the binaries compared
are different in an incompatible way. If this bit is set, then the ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE bit must be set as
well. If the ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE is set and the ABIDIFF_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE is NOT set, then it means
that the ABIs being compared might or might not be compatible. In that case, a human being needs to
review the ABI changes to decide if they are compatible or not.
Note that, at the moment, there are only a few kinds of ABI changes that would result in setting the flag
ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE. Those ABI changes are either:
• the removal of the symbol of a function or variable that has been defined and exported.
• the modification of the index of a member of a virtual function table (for C++ programs and
libraries).
With time, when more ABI change patterns are found to always constitute incompatible ABI changes, we will
adapt the code to recognize those cases and set the ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE accordingly. So, if
you find such patterns, please let us know.
The remaining bits are not used for the moment.
Usage examples
1. Detecting an ABI change in a sub-type of a function:
$ cat -n test-v0.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 int m0;
7 };
8
9 void
10 foo(S0* /*parameter_name*/)
11 {
12 // do something with parameter_name.
13 }
$
$ cat -n test-v1.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
3
4 struct type_base
5 {
6 int inserted;
7 };
8
9 struct S0 : public type_base
10 {
11 int m0;
12 };
13
14 void
15 foo(S0* /*parameter_name*/)
16 {
17 // do something with parameter_name.
18 }
$
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
$
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so; echo "exit code: $?"
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void foo(S0*)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'S0*' has sub-type changes:
in pointed to type 'struct S0':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 base class insertion:
struct type_base
1 data member change:
'int S0::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
exit code: 4
$
Note how the exit code is 4, meaning the third bit ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE of value 4 is set to 1. This means
the tool categorizes the ABI change as harmful and thus requires a user review.
2. Detecting an incompatible ABI change in the type of a function:
$ cat -n test-v0.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 int m0;
7 };
8
9 S0
10 foo()
11 {
12 S0 s = {};
13 return s;
14 }
$
$ cat -n test-v1.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
3
4 struct type_base
5 {
6 int inserted;
7 };
8
9 struct S0 : public type_base
10 {
11 int m0;
12 };
13
14 S0
15 foo()
16 {
17 S0 s = {};
18 return s;
19 }
$
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
$
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so; echo "exit code: $?"
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with incompatible sub-type changes:
[C] 'function S0 foo(void)' at test-v0.cc:10:1 has some sub-type changes:
return type changed:
type size changed from 32 to 64 (in bits)
1 base class insertion:
struct type_base at test-v1.cc:4:1
1 data member change:
'int m0' offset changed from 0 to 32 (in bits) (by +32 bits)
exit code: 12
$
Note how the exit code is 12, meaning both the third bit ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE of value 4 and the fourth bit
ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE of value 8 are set to 1. This means the tool categorizes the ABI change
as incompatible. It’s an ABI break.
3. Detecting another change in a sub-type of a function:
$ cat -n test-v0.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 int m0;
7 };
8
9 void
10 foo(S0& /*parameter_name*/)
11 {
12 // do something with parameter_name.
13 }
$
$ cat -n test-v1.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 char inserted_member;
7 int m0;
8 };
9
10 void
11 foo(S0& /*parameter_name*/)
12 {
13 // do something with parameter_name.
14 }
$
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
$
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so; echo "exit code: $?"
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void foo(S0&)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'S0&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct S0':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char S0::inserted_member', at offset 0 (in bits)
1 data member change:
'int S0::m0' offset changed from 0 to 32
exit code: 4
$
4. Detecting that functions got removed or added to a library:
$ cat -n test-v0.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 int m0;
7 };
8
9 void
10 foo(S0& /*parameter_name*/)
11 {
12 // do something with parameter_name.
13 }
$
$ cat -n test-v1.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
3
4 struct S0
5 {
6 char inserted_member;
7 int m0;
8 };
9
10 void
11 bar(S0& /*parameter_name*/)
12 {
13 // do something with parameter_name.
14 }
$
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v0.so test-v0.cc
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-v1.so test-v1.cc
$
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so; echo "exit code: $?"
Functions changes summary: 1 Removed, 0 Changed, 1 Added functions
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 Removed function:
'function void foo(S0&)' {_Z3fooR2S0}
1 Added function:
'function void bar(S0&)' {_Z3barR2S0}
exit code: 12
$
5. Comparing two sets of binaries that are passed on the command line:
$ abidiff --add-binaries1=file2-v1 \
--add-binaries2=file2-v2,file2-v1 \
--added-binaries-dir1 dir1 \
--added-binaries-dir2 dir2 \
file1-v1 file1-v2
Note that the files file2-v1, and file2-v2 are to be found in dir1 and dir2 or in the current
directory.
6. Compare two libraries and their dependencies:
$ abidiff --follow-dependencies \
--added-binaries-dir1 /some/where \
--added-binaries-dir2 /some/where/else \
foo bar
This compares the set of binaries comprised by foo and its dependencies against the set of binaries
comprised by bar and its dependencies.
abipkgdiff
abipkgdiff compares the Application Binary Interfaces (ABI) of the ELF binaries contained in two sets of
software packages. The software package formats currently supported are Deb, RPM, tar archives (either
compressed or not) and plain directories that contain binaries.
The ABI of the binaries contained in the second set of packages is compared against the ABI of the
binaries contained in the first set of packages.
For a comprehensive ABI change report that includes changes about function and variable sub-types, the
two input package sets must be accompanied with their debug information packages that contain debug
information either in DWARF, CTF or in BTF formats. Please note however that some packages contain
binaries that embed the debug information directly in a section of said binaries. In those cases,
obviously, no separate debug information package is needed as the tool will find the debug information
inside the binaries.
By default, abipkgdiff uses debug information in DWARF format, if present, otherwise it compares binaries
interfaces using debug information in CTF or in BTF formats, if present. Finally, if no debug info in
these formats is found, it only considers ELF symbols and report about their addition or removal.
This tool uses the libabigail library to analyze the binary as well as its associated debug information.
Here is its general mode of operation.
When instructed to do so, a binary and its associated debug information is read and analyzed. To that
effect, libabigail analyzes by default the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) that are visible outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an Application Binary Interface Corpus is constructed by only considering the subset of types
reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It’s
that final ABI corpus which libabigail considers as representing the ABI of the analyzed binary.
Libabigail then has capabilities to generate textual representations of ABI Corpora, compare them,
analyze their changes and report about them.
Invocation
abipkgdiff [options] <package1> <package2>
package1 and package2 are the packages that contain the binaries to be compared.
An alternate invocation style would be:
abipkgdiff [options] --set1 <pkg1-v1> <pkg2-v1> <pkg3-v1> \
--set2 <pkg1-v2> <pkg2-v2> <pkg3-v2>
where the ABI of binaries contained in the second set of packages are compared against binaries contained
in the first set of packages.
Environment
abipkgdiff loads two default suppression specifications files, merges their content and use it to filter
out ABI change reports that might be considered as false positives to users.
• Default system-wide suppression specification file
It’s located by the optional environment variable LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that
environment variable is not set, then abipkgdiff tries to load the suppression file
$libdir/libabigail/libabigail-default.abignore. If that file is not present, then no default
system-wide suppression specification file is loaded.
• Default user suppression specification file.
It’s located by the optional environment LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_USER_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that environment
variable is not set, then abipkgdiff tries to load the suppression file $HOME/.abignore. If that file
is not present, then no default user suppression specification is loaded.
In addition to those default suppression specification files, abipkgdiff will also look inside the
packages being compared and if it sees a file that ends with the extension .abignore, then it will
consider it as a suppression specification and it will combine it to the default suppression
specification that might be already loaded.
The user might as well use the --suppressions option (that is documented further below) to provide a
suppression specification.
Options
• --allow-non-exported-interfaces
When looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the descriptions of
the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible outside of their
translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only considering the
subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by
the binary. It’s those final ABI Corpora that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI Corpora like these can be extremely slow.
In the presence of an “average sized” binary however one can afford having libabigail analyze all
interfaces that are visible outside of their translation unit, using this option.
Note that this option is turned on by default, unless we are in the presence of the Linux Kernel.
• --btf
This is used to compare packages with BTF debug information, if present.
• --ctf
This is used to compare packages with CTF debug information, if present.
• --debug-info-pkg1 | --d1 <path>
For cases where the debug information for package1 is split out into a separate file, tells
abipkgdiff where to find that separate debug information package.
Note that the debug info for package1 can have been split into several different debug info
packages. In that case, several instances of this options can be provided, along with those several
different debug info packages.
• --debug-info-pkg2 | --d2 <path>
For cases where the debug information for package2 is split out into a separate file, tells
abipkgdiff where to find that separate debug information package.
Note that the debug info for package2 can have been split into several different debug info
packages. In that case, several instances of this options can be provided, along with those several
different debug info packages.
• --devel-pkg1 | --devel1 <path>
Specifies where to find the Development Package associated with the first package to be compared.
That Development Package at path should at least contain header files in which public types exposed
by the libraries (of the first package to be compared) are defined. When this option is provided,
the tool filters out reports about ABI changes to types that are NOT defined in these header files.
• --devel-pkg2 | --devel2 <path>
Specifies where to find the Development Package associated with the second package to be compared.
That Development Package at path should at least contains header files in which public types exposed
by the libraries (of the second package to be compared) are defined. When this option is provided,
the tool filters out reports about ABI changes to types that are NOT defined in these header files.
• --drop-private-types
This option is to be used with the --devel-pkg1 and --devel-pkg2 options. With this option, types
that are NOT defined in the headers are entirely dropped from the internal representation build by
Libabigail to represent the ABI. They thus don’t have to be filtered out from the final ABI change
report because they are not even present in Libabigail’s representation.
Without this option however, those private types are kept in the internal representation and later
filtered out from the report.
This options thus potentially makes Libabigail consume less memory. It’s meant to be mainly used to
optimize the memory consumption of the tool on binaries with a lot of publicly defined and exported
types.
• --dso-only
Compare ELF files that are shared libraries, only. Do not compare executable files, for instance.
• --exported-interfaces-only
By default, when looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the
descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible
outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only
considering the subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined
and exported by the binary. It’s those final ABI Corpora that are compared by this tool.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI corpora like these can be extremely slow.
To mitigate that performance issue, this option allows libabigail to only analyze types that are
reachable from interfaces associated with defined and exported ELF symbols.
Note that this option is turned on by default when analyzing the Linux Kernel. Otherwise, it’s
turned off by default.
• --fail-no-dbg
Make the program fail and return a non-zero exit code if couldn’t read any of the debug information
that comes from the debug info packages that were given on the command line. If no debug info
package were provided on the command line then this option is not active.
Note that the non-zero exit code returned by the program as a result of this option is the constant
ABIDIFF_ERROR. To know the numerical value of that constant, please refer to the exit code
documentation.
• --full-impact|-f
When comparing two Linux Kernel packages, this function instructs abipkgdiff to emit the so-called
full impact report, which is the default report kind emitted by the abidiff tool:
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fn(C&)' at test-v1.cc:13:1 has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'C&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct C' at test-v1.cc:7:1:
type size hasn't changed
1 data member change:
type of 'leaf* C::m0' changed:
in pointed to type 'struct leaf' at test-v1.cc:1:1:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
$
• --harmless
In the diff report, display only the harmless changes. By default, the harmless changes are
filtered out of the diff report keep the clutter to a minimum and have a greater chance to spot real
ABI issues.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --impacted-interfaces
When showing leaf changes, this option instructs abipkgdiff to show the list of impacted interfaces.
This option is thus to be used in addition to the --leaf-changes-only option, or, when comparing two
Linux Kernel packages. Otherwise, it’s simply ignored.
• --keep-tmp-files
Do not erase the temporary directory files that are created during the execution of the tool.
• --leaf-changes-only|-l only show leaf changes, so don’t show impact analysis report. This option
implies --redundant
The typical output of abipkgdiff and abidiff when comparing two binaries, that we shall call full
impact report, looks like this
$ abidiff libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 1 Changed, 0 Added function
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
1 function with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function void fn(C&)' at test-v1.cc:13:1 has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 1 of type 'C&' has sub-type changes:
in referenced type 'struct C' at test-v1.cc:7:1:
type size hasn't changed
1 data member change:
type of 'leaf* C::m0' changed:
in pointed to type 'struct leaf' at test-v1.cc:1:1:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
$
So in that example the report emits information about how the data member insertion change of
“struct leaf” is reachable from function “void fn(C&)”. In other words, the report not only shows
the data member change on “struct leaf”, but it also shows the impact of that change on the function
“void fn(C&)”.
In abidiff (and abipkgdiff) parlance, the change on “struct leaf” is called a leaf change. So the
--leaf-changes-only --impacted-interfaces options show, well, only the leaf change. And it goes
like this:
$ abidiff -l libtest-v0.so libtest-v1.so
'struct leaf' changed:
type size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char leaf::m1', at offset 32 (in bits) at test-v1.cc:4:1
one impacted interface:
function void fn(C&)
$
Note how the report ends up by showing the list of interfaces impacted by the leaf change. That’s
the effect of the additional --impacted-interfaces option.
Now if you don’t want to see that list of impacted interfaces, then you can just avoid using the
--impacted-interface option. You can learn about that option below, in any case.
Please note that when comparing two Linux Kernel packages, it’s this leaf changes report that is
emitted, by default. The normal so-called full impact report can be emitted with the option
--full-impact which is documented later below.
• --linux-kernel-abi-whitelist | -w <path-to-whitelist>
When comparing two Linux kernel RPM packages, this option points to the white list of names of ELF
symbols of functions and variables that must be compared for ABI changes. That white list is called
a “Linux kernel ABI white list”.
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not present in that white list will not be
considered by the ABI comparison process.
If this option is not provided – thus if no white list is provided – then the ABI of all publicly
defined and exported functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel binaries are compared.
Please note that if a white list package is given in parameter, this option handles it just fine,
like if the –wp option was used.
• --no-abignore
Do not search the package for the presence of suppression files.
• --no-added-binaries
Do not show the list of binaries that got added to the second package.
Please note that the presence of such added binaries is not considered like an ABI change by this
tool; as such, it doesn’t have any impact on the exit code of the tool. It does only have an
informational value. Removed binaries are, however, considered as an ABI change.
• --no-added-syms
Do not show the list of functions, variables, or any symbol that was added.
• --no-assume-odr-for-cplusplus
When analysing a binary originating from C++ code using DWARF debug information, libabigail assumes
the One Definition Rule to speed-up the analysis. In that case, when several types have the same
name in the binary, they are assumed to all be equal.
This option disables that assumption and instructs libabigail to actually actually compare the types
to determine if they are equal.
• --no-default-suppression
Do not load the default suppression specification files.
• --no-leverage-dwarf-factorization
When analysing a binary which DWARF debug information was processed with the DWZ tool, the type
information is supposed to be already factorized. That context is used by libabigail to perform
some speed optimizations.
This option disables those optimizations.
• --no-linkage-name
In the resulting report, do not display the linkage names of the added, removed, or changed
functions or variables.
• --no-parallel
By default, abipkgdiff will use all the processors it has available to execute concurrently. This
option tells it not to extract packages or run comparisons in parallel.
• --non-reachable-types|-t
Analyze and emit change reports for all the types of the binary, including those that are not
reachable from global functions and variables.
This option might incur some serious performance degradation as the number of types analyzed can be
huge. However, if paired with the --devel-pkg{1,2} options, the additional non-reachable types
analyzed are restricted to those defined in the public headers files carried by the referenced
development packages, thus hopefully making the performance hit acceptable.
Also, using this option alongside suppression specifications (by also using the --suppressions
option) might help keep the number of analyzed types (and the potential performance degradation) in
control.
Note that without this option, only types that are reachable from global functions and variables are
analyzed, so the tool detects and reports changes on these reachable types only.
• --no-show-locs
Do not show information about where in the second shared library the respective type was changed.
• --no-show-relative-offset-changes
Without this option, when the offset of a data member changes, the change report not only
mentions the older and newer offset, but it also mentions by how many bits the data member
changes. With this option, the latter is not shown.
• --no-unreferenced-symbols
In the resulting report, do not display change information about function and variable symbols that
are not referenced by any debug information. Note that for these symbols not referenced by any
debug information, the change information displayed is either added or removed symbols.
• --show-bits
Show sizes and offsets in bits, not bytes. This option is activated by default.
• --show-bytes
Show sizes and offsets in bytes, not bits. By default, sizes and offsets are shown in bits.
• --show-dec
Show sizes and offsets in decimal base. This option is activated by default.
• --show-hex
Show sizes and offsets in hexadecimal base.
• --show-identical-binaries
Show the names of the all binaries compared, including the binaries whose ABI compare equal. By
default, when this option is not provided, only binaries with ABI changes are mentionned in the
output.
• --private-dso
By default, abipkgdiff does not compare DSOs that are private to the RPM package. A private DSO is
a DSO which SONAME is NOT advertised in the “provides” property of the RPM.
This option instructs abipkgdiff to also compare DSOs that are NOT advertised in the “provides”
property of the RPM.
Please note that the fact that (by default) abipkgdiff skips private DSO is a feature that is
available only for RPMs, at the moment. We would happily accept patches adding that feature for
other package formats.
• --redundant
In the diff reports, do display redundant changes. A redundant change is a change that has been
displayed elsewhere in a given report.
• --self-check
This is used to test the underlying Libabigail library. When in used, the command expects only on
input package, along with its associated debug info packages. The command then compares each binary
inside the package against its own ABIXML representation. The result of the comparison should yield
the empty set if Libabigail behaves correctly. Otherwise, it means there is an issue that ought to
be fixed. This option is used by people interested in Libabigail development for regression testing
purposes. Here is an example of the use of this option:
$ abipkgdiff --self-check --d1 mesa-libGLU-debuginfo-9.0.1-3.fc33.x86_64.rpm mesa-libGLU-9.0.1-3.fc33.x86_64.rpm
==== SELF CHECK SUCCEEDED for 'libGLU.so.1.3.1' ====
$
• --set1 <package1-path> <package2-path> <package2-path> …
Specifies the first set of packages whose binaries are to be compared against the second one. Note
that the second set of packages is to be specified using the option --set2.
• --set2 <package1-path> <package2-path> <package2-path> …
Specifies the second set of packages whose binaries are to be compared against the second one. Note
that the first set of packages is to be specified using the option --set1.
• --suppressions | --suppr <path-to-suppressions>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppressions. Note that this option can
appear multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the suppression specification files
are taken into account.
Please note that, by default, if this option is not provided, then the default suppression
specification files are loaded .
• –version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
• --wp <path-to-whitelist-package>
When comparing two Linux kernel RPM packages, this option points an RPM package containining several
white lists of names of ELF symbols of functions and variables that must be compared for ABI
changes. Those white lists are called “Linux kernel ABI white lists”.
From the content of that white list package, this program then chooses the appropriate Linux kernel
ABI white list to consider when comparing the ABI of Linux kernel binaries contained in the Linux
kernel packages provided on the command line.
That choosen Linux kernel ABI white list contains the list of names of ELF symbols of functions and
variables that must be compared for ABI changes.
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not present in that white list will not be
considered by the ABI comparison process.
Note that this option can be provided twice (not mor than twice), specifying one white list package
for each Linux Kernel package that is provided on the command line.
If this option is not provided – thus if no white list is provided – then the ABI of all publicly
defined and exported functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel binaries are compared.
• --verbose
Emit verbose progress messages.
• --verbose-diff
Emit timed verbose progress messages about the diffing process. This option implies the –verbose
one.
Return value
The exit code of the abipkgdiff command is either 0 if the ABI of the binaries compared are equal, or
non-zero if they differ or if the tool encountered an error.
In the later case, the value of the exit code is the same as for the abidiff tool.
kmidiff
kmidiff compares the binary Kernel Module Interfaces of two Linux Kernel trees. The binary KMI is the
interface that the Linux Kernel exposes to its modules. The trees we are interested in here are the
result of the build of the Linux Kernel source tree.
General approach
And example of how to build your kernel if you want to compare it to another one using kmidiff is:
git clone -b v4.5 git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git linux/v4.5
cd linux/v4.5
make allyesconfig all
Then install the modules into a directory, for instance, the build/modules sub-directory of the your
kernel source tree:
mkdir build/modules
make modules_install INSTALL_MOD_DIR=build/modules
Then construct a list of interfaces exported by the kernel, that you want to compare:
cat > kmi-whitelist << EOF
[kernel_4.5_kmi_whitelist]
init_task
schedule
dev_queue_xmit
__kmalloc
printk
EOF
Suppose you’ve done something similar for the v4.6 branch of the Linux kernel, you now have these two
directories: linux/v4.5 and linux/v4.6. Their modules are present under the directories
linux/v4.5/build/modules and linux/v4.6/build/modules.
To Comparing their KMI kmidiff needs to know where to find the vmlinux binaries and their associated
modules. Here would be what the command line looks like:
kmidiff \
--kmi-whitelist linux/v4.6/kmi-whitelist \
--vmlinux1 linux/v4.5/vmlinux \
--vmlinux2 linux/v4.6/vmlinux \
linux/v4.5/build/modules \
linux/v4.6/build/modules
This tool uses the libabigail library to analyze the binary as well as its associated debug information.
Here is its general mode of operation.
When instructed to do so, a binary and its associated debug information is read and analyzed. To that
effect, libabigail analyzes by default the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) that are visible outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an Application Binary Interface Corpus is constructed by only considering the subset of types
reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It’s
that final ABI corpus which libabigail considers as representing the ABI of the analyzed binary.
Libabigail then has capabilities to generate textual representations of ABI Corpora, compare them,
analyze their changes and report about them.
Invocation
More generally, kmidiff is invoked under the form:
kmidiff [options] <first-modules-dir> <second-modules-dir>
Environment
By default, kmidiff compares all the interfaces (exported functions and variables) between the Kernel and
its modules. In practice, though, some users might want to compare a subset of the those interfaces.
By default, kmidiff uses debug information in the DWARF debug info format, if present, otherwise it
compares interfaces using CTF or BTF debug info formats, if present. Finally, if no debug info in these
formats is found, it only considers ELF symbols and report about their addition or removal.
Users can then define a “white list” of the interfaces to compare. Such a white list is a just a file in
the “INI” format that looks like:
[kernel_version_x86_64_whitelist]
function1_name
function2_name
global_variable1_name
....
Note that the name of the section (the name that is between the two brackets) of that INI file just has
to end with the string “whitelist”. So you can define the name you want, for instance
[kernel_46_x86_64_whitelist].
Then each line of that whitelist file is the name of an exported function or variable. Only those
interfaces along with the types reachable from their signatures are going to be compared by kmidiff
recursively.
Note that by default kmidiff analyzes the types reachable from the interfaces associated with ELF symbols
that are defined and exported by the Linux Kernel as being the union of the vmlinux binary and all its
compiled modules. It then compares those interfaces (along with their types).
Options
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
• --verbose
Display some verbose messages while executing.
• --debug-info-dir1 | --d1 <di-path1>
For cases where the debug information for the binaries of the first Linux kernel is split out into
separate files, tells kmidiff where to find those separate debug information files.
Note that di-path must point to the root directory under which the debug information is arranged in
a tree-like manner. Under Red Hat based systems, that directory is usually <root>/usr/lib/debug.
• --debug-info-dir2 | --d2 <di-path2>
Like --debug-info-dir1, this options tells kmidiff where to find the split debug information for the
binaries of the second Linux kernel.
• --vmlinux1 | --l1 <path-to-first-vmlinux>
Sets the path to the first vmlinux binary to consider. This has to be the uncompressed vmlinux
binary compiled with debug info.
• --vmlinux2 | --l2 <path-to-first-vmlinux>
Sets the path to the second vmlinux binary to consider. This has to be the uncompressed vmlinux
binary compiled with debug info.
• --kmi-whitelist | -w <path-to-interface-whitelist>
Set the path to the white list of interfaces to compare while comparing the Kernel Module Interface
of the first kernel against the one of the second kernel.
If this option is not provided, all the exported interfaces of the two kernels are compared. That
takes a lot of times and is not necessarily meaningful because many interface are probably meant to
see their reachable types change.
So please, make sure you always use this option unless you really know what you are doing.
• --suppressions | --suppr <path-to-suppressions>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppressions. Note that this option can
appear multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the provided suppression
specification files are taken into account.
Please note that, by default, if this option is not provided, then the default suppression
specification files are loaded .
• --no-change-categorization | -x
This option disables the categorization of changes into harmless and harmful changes. Note that
this categorization is a pre-requisite for the filtering of changes so this option disables that
filtering. The goal of this option is to speed-up the execution of the program for cases where the
graph of changes is huge and where the user is just interested in looking at, for instance, leaf
node changes without caring about their possible impact on interfaces.
• --ctf
Extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present, in the Kernel and Modules.
• --btf
Extract ABI information from BTF debug information, if present, in the Kernel and Modules.
• --impacted-interfaces | -i
Tell what interfaces got impacted by each individual ABI change.
• --full-impact | -f
Emit a change report that shows the full impact of each change on exported interfaces. This is the
default kind of report emitted by tools like abidiff or abipkgdiff.
• --exported-interfaces-only
When using this option, this tool analyzes the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) associated with ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the Linux
Kernel.
Otherwise, the tool also has the ability to analyze the descriptions of the types reachable by the
interfaces associated with ELF symbols that are visible outside their translation unit. This later
possibility is however much more resource intensive and results in much slower operations.
That is why this option is enabled by default.
• --allow-non-exported-interfaces
When using this option, this tool analyzes the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) that are visible outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an ABI Corpus is constructed by only considering the subset of types reachable from interfaces
associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It’s that final ABI corpus
which is compared against another one.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, leading to very slow operations.
Note that this option is turned off by default.
• --show-bytes
Show sizes and offsets in bytes, not bits. This option is activated by default.
• --show-bits
Show sizes and offsets in bits, not bytes. By default, sizes and offsets are shown in bytes.
• --show-hex
Show sizes and offsets in hexadecimal base. This option is activated by default.
• --show-dec
Show sizes and offsets in decimal base.
abidw
abidw reads a shared library in ELF format and emits an XML representation of its ABI to standard output.
The emitted representation format, named ABIXML, includes all the globally defined functions and
variables, along with a complete representation of their types. It also includes a representation of the
globally defined ELF symbols of the file.
When given the --linux-tree option, this program can also handle a Linux kernel tree. That is, a
directory tree that contains both the vmlinux binary and Linux Kernel modules. It analyses those Linux
Kernel binaries and emits an XML representation of the interface between the kernel and its module, to
standard output. In this case, we don’t call it an ABI, but a KMI (Kernel Module Interface). The
emitted KMI includes all the globally defined functions and variables, along with a complete
representation of their types.
To generate either ABI or KMI representation, by default abidw uses debug information in the DWARF
format, if present, otherwise it looks for debug information in CTF or BTF formats, if present. Finally,
if no debug info in these formats is found, it only considers ELF symbols and report about their addition
or removal.
This tool uses the libabigail library to analyze the binary as well as its associated debug information.
Here is its general mode of operation.
When instructed to do so, a binary and its associated debug information is read and analyzed. To that
effect, libabigail analyzes by default the descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces
(functions and variables) that are visible outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is
done, an Application Binary Interface Corpus is constructed by only considering the subset of types
reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by the binary. It’s
that final ABI corpus which libabigail considers as representing the ABI of the analyzed binary.
Libabigail then has capabilities to generate textual representations of ABI Corpora, compare them,
analyze their changes and report about them.
Invocation
abidw [options] [<path-to-elf-file>]
Options
• --abidiff
Load the ABI of the ELF binary given in argument, save it in libabigail’s XML format in a
temporary file; read the ABI from the temporary XML file and compare the ABI that has been read
back against the ABI of the ELF binary given in argument. The ABIs should compare equal. If they
don’t, the program emits a diagnostic and exits with a non-zero code.
This is a debugging and sanity check option.
• --abixml-version
Display the version of the ABIXML format emitted by this program and exit.
• --add-binaries <bin1,bin2,…>
For each of the comma-separated binaries given in argument to this option, if the binary is found in
the directory specified by the –added-binaries-dir option, then load the ABI corpus of the binary
and add it to a set of ABI corpora (called a ABI Corpus Group) made of the binary denoted by the
Argument of abidw. That corpus group is then serialized out.
• --added-binaries-dir | --abd <dir-path>
This option is to be used in conjunction with the --add-binaries, the --follow-dependencies or the
--list-dependencies option. Binaries listed as arguments of the --add-binaries option or being
dependencies of the input binary in the case of the --follow-dependencies option and found in the
directory <dir-path> are going to be loaded as ABI corpus and added to the set of ABI corpora
(called an ABI corpus group) built and serialized.
• --allow-non-exported-interfaces
When looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the descriptions of
the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible outside of their
translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only considering the
subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined and exported by
the binary. It’s that final ABI corpus which textual representation is saved as ABIXML.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI corpora like these can be extremely slow.
In the presence of an “average sized” binary however one can afford having libabigail analyze all
interfaces that are visible outside of their translation unit, using this option.
Note that this option is turned on by default, unless we are in the presence of the Linux Kernel.
• --annotate
Annotate the ABIXML output with comments above most elements. The comments are made of the
pretty-printed form types, declaration or even ELF symbols. The purpose is to make the ABIXML
output more human-readable for debugging or documenting purposes.
• --btf
Extract ABI information from BTF debug information, if present in the given object.
• --check-alternate-debug-info <elf-path>
If the debug info for the file elf-path contains a reference to an alternate debug info file, abidw
checks that it can find that alternate debug info file. In that case, it emits a meaningful success
message mentioning the full path to the alternate debug info file found. Otherwise, it emits an
error code.
• --check-alternate-debug-info-base-name <elf-path>
Like --check-alternate-debug-info, but in the success message, only mention the base name of the
debug info file; not its full path.
• --debug-abidiff
Same as --abidiff but in debug mode. In this mode, error messages are emitted for types which
fail type canonicalization.
This is an optional debugging and sanity check option. To enable it the libabigail package needs
to be configured with the –enable-debug-self-comparison option.
• --ctf
Extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present in the given object.
• --debug-info-dir | -d <dir-path>
In cases where the debug info for path-to-elf-file is in a separate file that is located in a
non-standard place, this tells abidw where to look for that debug info file.
Note that dir-path must point to the root directory under which the debug information is arranged in
a tree-like manner. Under Red Hat based systems, that directory is usually <root>/usr/lib/debug.
This option can be provided several times with different root directories. In that case, abidw will
potentially look into all those root directories to find the split debug info for the elf file.
Note that this option is not mandatory for split debug information installed by your system’s
package manager because then abidw knows where to find it.
• --debug-type-canonicalization | --debug-tc
Debug the type canonicalization process. This is done by using structural and canonical equality
when canonicalizing every single type. Structural and canonical equality should yield the same
result. If they don’t yield the same result for a given type, then it means that the
canonicalization of that type went wrong. In that case, an error message is emitted and the
execution of the program is aborted.
This option is available only if the package was configured with the
–enable-debug-type-canonicalization option.
• --drop-private-types
This option is implicitly set by option –headers-dir and –header-file options.
With this option, types that are NOT defined in the headers are entirely dropped from the internal
representation build by Libabigail to represent the ABI and will not end up in the abi XML file.
This option is provided or compatibility reasons only and should not be explicitly used anymore.
• --drop-undefined-syms
With this option functions or variables for which the (exported) ELF symbol is undefined are dropped
from the internal representation build by Libabigail to represent the ABI and will not end up in the
abi XML file.
• --exported-interfaces-only
By default, when looking at the debug information accompanying a binary, this tool analyzes the
descriptions of the types reachable by the interfaces (functions and variables) that are visible
outside of their translation unit. Once that analysis is done, an ABI corpus is constructed by only
considering the subset of types reachable from interfaces associated to ELF symbols that are defined
and exported by the binary. It’s that final ABI corpus which textual representation is saved as
ABIXML.
The problem with that approach however is that analyzing all the interfaces that are visible from
outside their translation unit can amount to a lot of data, especially when those binaries are
applications, as opposed to shared libraries. One example of such applications is the Linux Kernel.
Analyzing massive ABI corpora like these can be extremely slow.
To mitigate that performance issue, this option allows libabigail to only analyze types that are
reachable from interfaces associated with defined and exported ELF symbols.
Note that this option is turned on by default when analyzing the Linux Kernel. Otherwise, it’s
turned off by default.
• --follow-dependencies
For each dependency of the input binary of abidw, if it is found in the directory specified by the
--added-binaries-dir option, then construct an ABI corpus out of the dependency and add it to a set
of ABI corpora (called an ABI Corpus Group) along with the ABI corpus of the input binary of the
program. The ABI Corpus Group is then serialized out.
• --force-early-suppression
This option must be used alongside option –suppression.
It forces suppression specifications to be applied in early suppression mode. Artifacts of the
internal representation that are matched by suppression specifications are thus suppressed from
memory.
If this option is not used then only suppression specifications with the drop property set to ‘yes’
are effective. All other suppression specification directives will appear to be ignored.
• --headers-dir | --hd <headers-directory-path-1>
Specifies where to find the public headers of the binary that the tool has to consider. The tool
will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers. This option implicitly sets
option –drop-private-types.
Note that several public header directories can be specified for the binary to consider. In that
case the --header-dir option should be present several times on the command line, like in the
following example:
$ abidw --header-dir /some/path \
--header-dir /some/other/path \
binary > binary.abi
• --header-file | --hf <header-file-path>
Specifies where to find one of the public headers of the abi file that the tool has to consider.
The tool will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers.
This option implicitly sets option –drop-private-types.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --kmi-whitelist | --kmi-stablelist |-w <path-to-stablelist>
When analyzing a Linux Kernel binary, this option points to the list of names of ELF symbols of
functions and variables which ABI must be written out. Any function or variable with a name that is
not included in that list will not ignored. That list is called a “ Kernel Module Interface stable
list”. This is because for the Kernel, we don’t talk about the ABI; we rather talk about the
interface between the Kernel and its module. Hence the term KMI rather than KABI.
Any other function or variable which ELF symbol are not present in that stable list will not be
considered by the KMI writing process.
If this option is not provided – thus if no stable list is provided – then the entire KMI, that is,
all publicly defined and exported functions and global variables by the Linux Kernel binaries is
emitted.
• --list-dependencies
For each dependency of the input binary of``abidw``, if it’s found in the directory specified by the
--added-binaries-dir option, then the name of the dependency is printed out.
• --load-all-types
By default, libabigail (and thus abidw) only loads types that are reachable from functions and
variables declarations that are publicly defined and exported by the binary. So only those types
are present in the output of abidw. This option however makes abidw load all the types defined in
the binaries, even those that are not reachable from public declarations.
• --linux-tree | --lt
Make abidw to consider the input path as a path to a directory containing the vmlinux binary as
several kernel modules binaries. In that case, this program emits the representation of the Kernel
Module Interface (KMI) on the standard output.
Below is an example of usage of abidw on a Linux Kernel tree.
First, checkout a Linux Kernel source tree and build it. Then install the kernel modules in a
directory somewhere. Copy the vmlinux binary into that directory too. And then serialize the KMI
of that kernel to disk, using abidw:
$ git clone git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git
$ cd linux && git checkout v4.5
$ make allyesconfig all
$ mkdir build-output
$ make INSTALL_MOD_PATH=./build-output modules_install
$ cp vmlinux build-output/modules/4.5.0
$ abidw --linux-tree build-output/modules/4.5.0 > build-output/linux-4.5.0.kmi
• --no-assume-odr-for-cplusplus
When analysing a binary originating from C++ code using DWARF debug information, libabigail assumes
the One Definition Rule to speed-up the analysis. In that case, when several types have the same
name in the binary, they are assumed to all be equal.
This option disables that assumption and instructs libabigail to actually actually compare the types
to determine if they are equal.
• --no-corpus-path
Do not emit the path attribute for the ABI corpus.
• --no-elf-needed
Do not include the list of DT_NEEDED dependency names in the corpus.
• --no-leverage-dwarf-factorization
When analysing a binary which DWARF debug information was processed with the DWZ tool, the type
information is supposed to be already factorized. That context is used by libabigail to perform
some speed optimizations.
This option disables those optimizations.
• --no-load-undefined-interfaces
By default, libabigail (and thus abidw) loads information about undefined function and variable
symbols as well as functions and variables that are associated with those undefined symbols. Those
are called undefined interfaces. This option however makes makes abidw avoid loading information
about undefined interfaces. The resulting XML file thus doesn’t contain information about those
undefined interfaces.
• --no-linux-kernel-mode
Without this option, if abipkgiff detects that the binaries it is looking at are Linux Kernel
binaries (either vmlinux or modules) then it only considers functions and variables which ELF
symbols are listed in the __ksymtab and __ksymtab_gpl sections.
With this option, abipkgdiff considers the binary as a non-special ELF binary. It thus considers
functions and variables which are defined and exported in the ELF sense.
• --noout
This option instructs abidw to not emit the XML representation of the ABI. So it only reads the ELF
and debug information, builds the internal representation of the ABI and exits. This option is
usually useful for debugging purposes.
• --no-parameter-names
In the emitted ABI representation, do not show names of function parameters, just the types.
• --no-show-locs
In the emitted ABI representation, do not show file, line or column where ABI artifacts are
defined.
• --no-write-default-sizes
In the XML ABI representation, do not write the size-in-bits for pointer type definitions, reference
type definitions, function declarations and function types when they are equal to the default
address size of the translation unit. Note that libabigail before 1.8 will not set the default size
and will interpret types without a size-in-bits attribute as zero sized.
• --out-file | -o <file-path>
This option instructs abidw to emit the XML representation of path-to-elf-file into the file
file-path, rather than emitting it to its standard output.
• --stats
Emit statistics about various internal things.
• --suppressions | suppr <path-to-suppression-specifications-file>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppression-specifications-file. Note that
this option can appear multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the provided
suppression specification files are taken into account. ABI artifacts matched by the suppression
specifications are suppressed from the output of this tool.
Only suppression specifications that have the drop property set to ‘yes’ are going to be effective.
All other suppression specification directives will appear as being ignored, unless the command line
option –force-early-suppression is provided.
• --type-id-style <sequence``|``hash>
This option controls how types are idenfied in the generated XML files. The default sequence style
just numbers (with type-id- as prefix) the types in the order they are encountered. The hash style
uses a (stable, portable) hash of libabigail’s internal type names and is intended to make the XML
files easier to diff.
• --verbose
Emit verbose logs about the progress of miscellaneous internal things.
• --version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
Usage examples
1. Emitting an ABIXML representation of a binary:
$ abidw binary > binary.abi
2. Emitting an ABIXML representation of a set of binaries specified on the command line:
$ abidw --added-binaries=bin1,bin2,bin3 \
--added-binaries-dir /some/where \
binary > binaries.abi
Note that the binaries bin1, bin2 and bin3 are to be found in the directory /some/where. A
representation of the ABI of the set of binaries binary, bin1, bin2 and bin3 called an ABI corpus
group is serialized in the file binaries.abi.
3. Emitting an ABIXML representation of a binary and its dependencies:
$ abidw --follow-dependencies \
--added-binaries-dir /some/where \
binary > binary.abi
Note that only the dependencies that are found in the directory /some/where are analysed. Their
ABIs, along with the ABI the binary named binary are represented as an ABI corpus group and
serialized in the file binary.abi, in the ABIXML format.
Notes
Alternate debug info files
As of the version 4 of the DWARF specification, Alternate debug information is a GNU extension to the
DWARF specification. It has however been proposed for inclusion into the upcoming version 5 of the DWARF
standard. You can read more about the GNU extensions to the DWARF standard here.
abidb
abidb manages a git repository of abixml files describing shared libraries, and checks binaries against
them. elfutils and libabigail programs are used to query and process the binaries. abidb works well
with debuginfod to fetch needed DWARF content automatically.
Invocation
abidb [OPTIONS] [--submit PATH1 PATH2 ...] [--check PATH1 PATH2 ...]
Common Options
• --abicompat PATH
Specify the path to the abicompat program to use. By default, in the absence of this option, the
abicompat program found in directories listed in the $PATH environment is used.
• --abidw PATH
Specify the path to the abidw program to use. By default, in the absence of this option, the abidw
program found in directories listed in the $PATH environment is used.
• --distrobranch BRANCH
Specify the git branch for the abixml files in the git repo. The default is a string like
DISTRO/VERSION/ARCHITECTURE, computed from the running environment.
• --git REPO
Specify the preexisting git working tree for abidb to submit to or check against. The default is
the current working directory. It may be used concurrently by multiple “check” operations, but only
one “submit” operation.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --loglevel LOGLEVEL
Specify the diagnostic level for messages to stderr. One of debug, info, warning, error, or
critical; case-insensitive. The default is info.
• --timeout SECONDS
Specify a maximum limit to the execution time (in seconds) allowed for the abidw and abicompat
programs that are executed. By default, no limit is set for the execution time of these programs.
Submit Options
• --archive | -Z .EXT[=CMD]
Designate PATH names with a .EXT suffix to be treated as archives. If CMD is present, pipe the PATH
through the given shell command, otherwise pass as if through cat. The resulting stream is then
opened by libarchive, to enumerate the contents of a wide variety of possible archive file format.
Process each file in the archive individually into abixml.
For example, -Z .zip will process each file in a zip file, and -Z .deb='dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile'
will process each payload file in a Debian archive.
• --filter REGEX
Limit files selected for abixml extraction to those that match the given regular expression. The
default is /lib.*\.so, as a heuristic to identify shared libraries.
• --submit PATH1 PATH2 ...
Using abidw, extract abixml for each of the listed files, generally shared libraries, subject to the
filename filter and the archive decoding options. Save the output of each abidw run into the
selected distrobranch of the selected git repo. If --submit and --check are both given, do submit
operations first.
• --sysroot PREFIX Specify the a prefix path that is to be removed from submitted file names.
Check Options
• --check PATH1 PATH2 ...
Using abidiff, compare each of the listed file, generally executables, against abixml documents for
selected versions for all shared libraries needed by the executable. These are listed by
enumerating the dynamic segment tags DT_NEEDED of the executable.
• --ld-library-path DIR1:DIR2:DIR3...
Select the search paths for abixml documents used to locate any particular SONAME . The first given
directory wins. However, all versions of the same SONAME in that directory are selected for
comparison. The default is unspecified, which means to search for all matching SONAME entries in
the distrobranch, regardless of specific directory.
Exit Code
In case of successful submission and/or checking of all paths, the exit code is 0.
In case of error, the exit code of abidb is nonzero, and a brief listing of the binaries unable to be
submitted and/or checked is printed.
Git Repository Schema
abidb stores abixml documents in a git repo with the following naming schema within the distrobranch:
1. The directory path leading to the shared library file
2. The SONAME of the shared library file, as a subdirectory name
3. A file named BUILDID.xml, where BUILDID is the hexadecimal ELF build-id note of the shared library.
For example:
┌───────────────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ shared library file name │ abixml path in git │
├───────────────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│ /usr/lib64/libc.so.6.2.32 │ /usr/lib64/libc.so.6/788cdd41a15985bf8e0a48d213a46e07d58822df.xml │
│ /usr/lib64/libc.so.6.2.33 │ /usr/lib64/libc.so.6/e2ca832f1c2112aea9d7b9bc639e97e873a6b516.xml │
│ /lib/ld-linux.so.2 │ /lib/ld-linux.so.2/b65f3c15b129f33f44f504da1719926aec03c07d.xml │
└───────────────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The intent of including the buildid in the name is so that as a distro is updated with multiple versions
of a given shared library, they can be represented nearby but non-conflicting. The SONAME is used in the
second-last name component, inspired the behavior of ld.so and ldconfig, which rely on symbolic links to
map references from the SONAME to an actual file.
See Also
• ELF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executable_and_Linkable_Format
• DWARF: https://www.dwarfstd.org
• Debuginfod: https://sourceware.org/elfutils/Debuginfod.html
• Git: https://git-scm.com/
• Libarchive: https://www.libarchive.org/
abicompat
abicompat checks that an application that links against a given shared library is still ABI compatible
with a subsequent version of that library. If the new version of the library introduces an ABI
incompatibility, then abicompat hints the user at what exactly that incompatibility is.
Invocation
abicompat [options] [<application> <shared-library-first-version> <shared-library-second-version>]
Options
• --help
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• –version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
• --list-undefined-symbols | -u
Display the list of undefined symbols of the application and exit.
• --show-base-names | -b
In the resulting report emitted by the tool, this option makes the application and libraries be
referred to by their base names only; not by a full absolute name. This can be useful for use in
scripts that wants to compare names of the application and libraries independently of what their
directory names are.
• --app-debug-info-dir | --appd <path-to-app-debug-info-directory>
Set the path to the directory under which the debug information of the application is supposed to be
laid out. This is useful for application binaries for which the debug info is in a separate set of
files.
• --lib-debug-info-dir1 | --libd1 <path-to-lib1-debug-info>
Set the path to the directory under which the debug information of the first version of the shared
library is supposed to be laid out. This is useful for shared library binaries for which the debug
info is in a separate set of files.
• --lib-debug-info-dir2 | --libd2 <path-to-lib1-debug-info>
Set the path to the directory under which the debug information of the second version of the shared
library is supposed to be laid out. This is useful for shared library binaries for which the debug
info is in a separate set of files.
• --suppressions | --suppr <path-to-suppressions>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppressions. Note that this option can
appear multiple times on the command line; all the suppression specification files are then taken
into account.
• --no-show-locs
Do not show information about where in the second shared library the respective type was changed.
• --btf
When comparing binaries, extract ABI information from BTF debug information, if present.
• --ctf
When comparing binaries, extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present.
• --fail-no-debug-info
If no debug info was found, then this option makes the program to fail. Otherwise, without this
option, the program will attempt to compare properties of the binaries that are not related to debug
info, like pure ELF properties.
• --ignore-soname
Ignore differences in the SONAME when doing a comparison
• --weak-mode
This triggers the weak mode of abicompat. In this mode, only one version of the library is
required. That is, abicompat is invoked like this:
abicompat --weak-mode <the-application> <the-library>
Note that the --weak-mode option can even be omitted if only one version of the library is given,
along with the application; in that case, abicompat automatically switches to operate in weak mode:
abicompat <the-application> <the-library>
In this weak mode, the types of functions and variables exported by the library and consumed by the
application (as in, the symbols of the these functions and variables are undefined in the
application and are defined and exported by the library) are compared to the version of these types
as expected by the application. And if these two versions of types are different, abicompat tells
the user what the differences are.
In other words, in this mode, abicompat checks that the types of the functions and variables
exported by the library mean the same thing as what the application expects, as far as the ABI is
concerned.
Note that in this mode, abicompat doesn’t detect exported functions or variables (symbols) that are
expected by the application but that are removed from the library. That is why it is called weak
mode.
Return values
The exit code of the abicompat command is either 0 if the ABI of the binaries being compared are equal,
or non-zero if they differ or if the tool encountered an error.
In the later case, the exit code is a 8-bits-wide bit field in which each bit has a specific meaning.
The first bit, of value 1, named ABIDIFF_ERROR means there was an error.
The second bit, of value 2, named ABIDIFF_USAGE_ERROR means there was an error in the way the user
invoked the tool. It might be set, for instance, if the user invoked the tool with an unknown command
line switch, with a wrong number or argument, etc. If this bit is set, then the ABIDIFF_ERROR bit must
be set as well.
The third bit, of value 4, named ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE means the ABI of the binaries being compared are
different.
The fourth bit, of value 8, named ABIDIFF_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE means the ABI of the binaries compared
are different in an incompatible way. If this bit is set, then the ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE bit must be set as
well. If the ABIDIFF_ABI_CHANGE is set and the ABIDIFF_INCOMPATIBLE_CHANGE is NOT set, then it means
that the ABIs being compared might or might not be compatible. In that case, a human being needs to
review the ABI changes to decide if they are compatible or not.
The remaining bits are not used for the moment.
Usage examples
• Detecting a possible ABI incompatibility in a new shared library version:
$ cat -n test0.h
1 struct foo
2 {
3 int m0;
4
5 foo()
6 : m0()
7 {}
8 };
9
10 foo*
11 first_func();
12
13 void
14 second_func(foo&);
15
16 void
17 third_func();
$
$ cat -n test-app.cc
1 // Compile with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -o test-app -L. -ltest-0 test-app.cc
3
4 #include "test0.h"
5
6 int
7 main()
8 {
9 foo* f = first_func();
10 second_func(*f);
11 return 0;
12 }
$
$ cat -n test0.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-0.so test0.cc
3
4 #include "test0.h"
5
6 foo*
7 first_func()
8 {
9 foo* f = new foo();
10 return f;
11 }
12
13 void
14 second_func(foo&)
15 {
16 }
17
18 void
19 third_func()
20 {
21 }
$
$ cat -n test1.h
1 struct foo
2 {
3 int m0;
4 char m1; /* <-- a new member got added here! */
5
6 foo()
7 : m0(),
8 m1()
9 {}
10 };
11
12 foo*
13 first_func();
14
15 void
16 second_func(foo&);
17
18 void
19 third_func();
$
$ cat -n test1.cc
1 // Compile this with:
2 // g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-1.so test1.cc
3
4 #include "test1.h"
5
6 foo*
7 first_func()
8 {
9 foo* f = new foo();
10 return f;
11 }
12
13 void
14 second_func(foo&)
15 {
16 }
17
18 /* Let's comment out the definition of third_func()
19 void
20 third_func()
21 {
22 }
23 */
$
• Compile the first and second versions of the libraries: libtest-0.so and libtest-1.so:
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-0.so test0.cc
$ g++ -g -Wall -shared -o libtest-1.so test1.cc
• Compile the application and link it against the first version of the library, creating the
test-app binary:
$ g++ -g -Wall -o test-app -L. -ltest-0.so test-app.cc
• Now, use abicompat to see if libtest-1.so is ABI compatible with app, with respect to the ABI of
libtest-0.so:
$ abicompat test-app libtest-0.so libtest-1.so
ELF file 'test-app' might not be ABI compatible with 'libtest-1.so' due to differences with 'libtest-0.so' below:
Functions changes summary: 0 Removed, 2 Changed, 0 Added functions
Variables changes summary: 0 Removed, 0 Changed, 0 Added variable
2 functions with some indirect sub-type change:
[C]'function foo* first_func()' has some indirect sub-type changes:
return type changed:
in pointed to type 'struct foo':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char foo::m1', at offset 32 (in bits)
[C]'function void second_func(foo&)' has some indirect sub-type changes:
parameter 0 of type 'foo&' has sub-type changes:
referenced type 'struct foo' changed, as reported earlier
$
• Now use the weak mode of abicompat, that is, providing just the application and the new version of
the library:
$ abicompat --weak-mode test-app libtest-1.so
functions defined in library
'libtest-1.so'
have sub-types that are different from what application
'test-app'
expects:
function foo* first_func():
return type changed:
in pointed to type 'struct foo':
size changed from 32 to 64 bits
1 data member insertion:
'char foo::m1', at offset 32 (in bits)
$
abilint
abilint parses the native XML representation of an ABI as emitted by abidw. Once it has parsed the XML
representation of the ABI, abilint builds and in-memory model from it. It then tries to save it back to
an XML form, to standard output. If that read-write operation succeeds chances are the input XML ABI
representation is meaningful.
Note that the main intent of this tool to help debugging issues in the underlying Libabigail library.
Note also that abilint can also read an ELF input file, build the in-memory model for its ABI, and
serialize that model back into XML to standard output. In that case, the ELF input file must be
accompanied with its debug information in the DWARF format.
Invocation
abilint [options] [<abi-file1>]
Options
• --annotate
Annotate the ABIXML output with comments above most elements. The comments are made of the
pretty-printed form of types, declaration or even ELF symbols. The purpose is to make the ABIXML
output more human-readable for debugging or documenting purposes.
• --ctf
Extract ABI information from CTF debug information, if present in the given object.
• --debug-info-dir <path>
When reading an ELF input file which debug information is split out into a separate file, this
options tells abilint where to find that separate debug information file.
Note that path must point to the root directory under which the debug information is arranged in a
tree-like manner. Under Red Hat based systems, that directory is usually <root>/usr/lib/debug.
Note also that this option is not mandatory for split debug information installed by your system’s
package manager because then abidiff knows where to find it.
• --diff
For XML inputs, perform a text diff between the input and the memory model saved back to disk. This
can help to spot issues in the handling of the XML format by the underlying Libabigail library.
• --header-file | --hf <header-file-path>
Specifies where to find one of the public headers of the abi file that the tool has to consider.
The tool will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers.
• --headers-dir | --hd <headers-directory-path-1>
Specifies where to find the public headers of the first shared library that the tool has to
consider. The tool will thus filter out types that are not defined in public headers.
• --help
Display a short help message and exits.
• --noout
Do not display anything on standard output. The return code of the command is the only way to know
if the command succeeded.
• --suppressions | suppr <path-to-suppression-specifications-file>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppression-specifications-file. Note that
this option can appear multiple times on the command line. In that case, all of the provided
suppression specification files are taken into account. ABI artifacts matched by the suppression
specifications are suppressed from the output of this tool.
• --stdin | --
Read the input content from standard input.
• --tu
Expect the input XML to represent a single translation unit.
• –verbose
Shows verbose messages about internal stuff. This is used to debug the tool and its underlying
library.
• –version | -v
Display the version of the program and exit.
fedabipkgdiff
fedabipkgdiff compares the ABI of shared libraries in Fedora packages. It’s a convenient way to do so
without having to manually download packages from the Fedora Build System.
fedabipkgdiff knows how to talk with the Fedora Build System to find the right packages versions, their
associated debug information and development packages, download them, compare their ABI locally, and
report about the possible ABI changes.
Note that by default, this tool reports ABI changes about types that are defined in public header files
found in the development packages associated with the packages being compared. It also reports ABI
changes about functions and global variables whose symbols are defined and exported in the ELF binaries
found in the packages being compared.
Invocation
fedabipkgdiff [option] <NVR> ...
Environment
fedabipkgdiff loads two default suppression specifications files, merges their content and use it to
filter out ABI change reports that might be considered as false positives to users.
• Default system-wide suppression specification file
It’s located by the optional environment variable LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_SYSTEM_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that
environment variable is not set, then fedabipkgdiff tries to load the suppression file
$libdir/libabigail/libabigail-default.abignore. If that file is not present, then no default
system-wide suppression specification file is loaded.
• Default user suppression specification file.
It’s located by the optional environment LIBABIGAIL_DEFAULT_USER_SUPPRESSION_FILE. If that environment
variable is not set, then fedabipkgdiff tries to load the suppression file $HOME/.abignore. If that
file is not present, then no default user suppression specification is loaded.
Options
• --abipkgdiff <path/to/abipkgdiff>
Specify an alternative abipkgdiff instead of the one installed in system.
• --all-subpackages
Instructs the tool to also compare the ABI of the binaries in the sub-packages of the packages
specified.
• --clean-cache
If you want to clean cache both before and after ABI comparison, --clean-cache is the convenient way
for you to save typing of two options at same time.
• --clean-cache-after
Clean cache after ABI comparison.
• --clean-cache-before
Clean cache before ABI comparison.
• --debug
Emit debugging messages about the execution of the program. Details about each method invocation,
including input parameters and returned values, are emitted.
• --dry-run
Don’t actually perform the ABI comparison. Details about what is going to be done are emitted on
standard output.
• --dso-only
Compares the ABI of shared libraries only. If this option is not provided, the tool compares the
ABI of all ELF binaries found in the packages.
• --from <distro>
Specifies the name of the baseline Fedora distribution in which to find the first build that is used
for comparison. The distro value can be any valid value of the RPM macro %{?dist} for Fedora, for
example, fc4, fc23, fc25.
• --help | -h
Display a short help about the command and exit.
• --no-default-suppression
Do not load the default suppression specification files.
• --no-devel-pkg
Do not take associated development packages into account when performing the ABI comparison. This
makes the tool report ABI changes about all types that are reachable from functions and global
variables which symbols are defined and publicly exported in the binaries being compared, even if
those types are not defined in public header files available from the packages being compared.
• --private-dso
Compare the ABI of shared libraries that are private to the packages. If this option is not
provided, shared libraries that are private to the packages being considered are not compared.
• --server <URL>
Specifies the URL of the Koji XMLRPC service the tool talks to. The default value of this option is
http://koji.fedoraproject.org/kojihub.
• --show-identical-binaries
Show the names of the all binaries compared, including the binaries whose ABI compare equal. By
default, when this option is not provided, only binaries with ABI changes are mentionned in the
output.
• --suppressions <path-to-suppresions>
Use a suppression specification file located at path-to-suppressions.
• --to <distro>
Specifies the name of the Fedora distribution in which to find the build that is compared against
the baseline specified by option --from. The distro value could be any valid value of the RPM macro
%{?dist} for Fedora, for example, fc4, fc23.
• --topurl <URL>
Specifies the URL of the package store the tool downloads RPMs from. The default value of this
option is https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org.
• --traceback
Show traceback when an exception raised. This is useful for developers of the tool itself to know
more exceptional errors.
Note that a build is a specific version and release of an RPM package. It’s specified by its the package
name, version and release. These are specified by the Fedora Naming Guidelines
Return value
The exit code of the abipkgdiff command is either 0 if the ABI of the binaries compared are equivalent,
or non-zero if they differ or if the tool encountered an error.
In the later case, the value of the exit code is the same as for the abidiff tool.
Use cases
Below are some usage examples currently supported by fedabipkgdiff.
1. Compare the ABI of binaries in a local package against the ABI of the latest stable package in ‐
Fedora 23.
Suppose you have built just built the httpd package and you want to compare the ABI of the binaries
in this locally built package against the ABI of the binaries in the latest http build from Fedora
23. The command line invocation would be:
$ fedabipkgdiff --from fc23 ./httpd-2.4.18-2.fc24.x86_64.rpm
2. Compare the ABI of binaries in two local packages.
Suppose you have built two versions of package httpd, and you want to see what ABI differences
between these two versions of RPM files. The command line invocation would be:
$ fedabipkgdiff path/to/httpd-2.4.23-3.fc23.x86_64.rpm another/path/to/httpd-2.4.23-4.fc24.x86_64.rpm
All what fedabipkgdiff does happens on local machine without the need of querying or downloading
RPMs from Koji.
3. Compare the ABI of binaries in the latest build of the httpd package in Fedora 23 against the ABI
of the binaries in the latest build of the same package in 24.
In this case, note that neither of the two packages are available locally. The tool is going to
talk with the Fedora Build System, determine what the versions and releases of the latest packages
are, download them and perform the comparison locally. The command line invocation would be:
$ fedabipkgdiff --from fc23 --to fc24 httpd
4. Compare the ABI of binaries of two builds of the httpd package, designated their versions and
releases.
If we want to do perform the ABI comparison for all the processor architectures supported by Fedora
the command line invocation would be:
$ fedabipkgdiff httpd-2.8.14.fc23 httpd-2.8.14.fc24
But if we want to perform the ABI comparison for a specific architecture, say, x86_64, then the
command line invocation would be:
$ fedabipkgdiff httpd-2.8.14.fc23.x86_64 httpd-2.8.14.fc24.x86_64
5. If the use wants to also compare the sub-packages of a given package, she can use the
–all-subpackages option. The first command of the previous example would thus look like:
$ fedabipkgdiff --all-subpackages httpd-2.8.14.fc23 httpd-2.8.14.fc24
AUTHOR
Dodji Seketeli
COPYRIGHT
2014-2025, Red Hat, Inc.
Jul 31, 2025 LIBABIGAIL(7)