[Libevent-users] Question: Library naming

[Trond Norbye]

I have intalled libevent 1.3c and 1.3d on my machine, and I have some 
questions about the naming used for libevent.

In my lib-directory I get the following:
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin bin       22 Sep 24 21:09 libevent-1.3c.so.1 -> 
libevent-1.3c.so.1.0.3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin bin   160824 Sep 24 21:09 libevent-1.3c.so.1.0.3
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin bin       22 Sep 24 19:21 libevent-1.3d.so.1 -> 
libevent-1.3d.so.1.0.3
-rwxr-xr-x   1 bin bin   303856 Sep 24 19:21 libevent-1.3d.so.1.0.3
lrwxrwxrwx   1 bin bin       22 Sep 24 19:21 libevent.so -> 
libevent-1.3d.so.1.0.3

When I look at the dynamic section in the libraries I see that it 
records libevent-1.3[cd].so.1 as the soname, so if I link my application 
with libevent it will require the same version of libevent to be located 
at runtime.

I thought that it was normal to name the libraries like  
lib<name>.so.<major>.<minor>.<micro> (eg: libevent.so.1.3.4) and create 
symbolic links so the application may pick up the newest version of the 
library (with the correct ABI) without re-linking the application.

Is there a good reason for not doing so?

Trond

(I looked in the archive and found 
http://monkeymail.org/archives/libevent-users/2006-March/000114.html, 
but I did not find a response to the question).