Let's do SOVERSION according to traditions and documentation

[Alexander Neundorf]

On Montag, 23. Februar 2026 13:36:43 Mitteleuropäische Normalzeit Sune Vuorela 
wrote:
> On 2026-02-23, Vlad Zahorodnii <vlad.zahorodnii at kde.org> wrote:
> > In plasma, we operate under different conditions. We can break ABI
> > there. On the other hand, if you consider KF, you cannot break API or
> > ABI compatibility, so you could lock the SOVERSION at the major version
> > and have them both match.
> > 
> > In plasma, since we can break ABI (we even moved some projects to plasma
> > in order to be able to make breaking changes), locking the SOVERSION
> > like that is simply not applicable.
> 
> I'm not talking about not doing abi breaking, but doing it in a way
> where you don't make reviewers of the binary packaging stumble.
> We should make it straight and easy.
> 
> the VERSION and SOVERSION attributes of libraries are not userfacing
> components and we should not treat any of them as such.
> 
> While the tool allows you to do weird things, one shouldn't.

I agree.
I don't see a reason why to make it confusing, if there is also a simple way: 
- major version = SO version = ABI compatible
- minor version = ABI compatible, may have additions
- patch version = only minor changes

Alex