FEDABIPKGDIFF(1)

NAME
fedabipkgdiff - compare ABIs of Fedora packages

fedabipkgdiff compares the ABI of shared libraries in Fedora <https://getfedora.org> packages. It’s a convenient way to do so without having to manually download packages from the Fedora Build System <http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji>.

fedabipkgdiff knows how to talk with the Fedora Build System <http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji> 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 <#suppr-spec-label>, 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 <https://getfedora.org> 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 <https://getfedora.org>, 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 <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/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 <#suppr-spec-label> file located at path-to-suppressions.

•   --to <distro>

    Specifies the name of the Fedora <https://getfedora.org> 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 <https://getfedora.org>, 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 <https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:NamingGuidelines>

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 <#abidiff-return-value-label>.

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 <https://getfedora.org> 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 <https://getfedora.org> 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 <http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji>, 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 <https://getfedora.org> 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
Chenxiong Qi

Copyright
2014-2025, Red Hat, Inc.