Changes/LIBFFI33

Summary

Rebase libffi in Fedora 34 from libffi 3.1 to libffi 3.3.9000.

Owner

Name: DJ Delorie
Email: dj@redhat.com

Current status

Targeted release: Fedora 34
Last updated: 2020-11-05
FESCo issue: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Tracker bug: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>
Release notes tracker: <will be assigned by the Wrangler>

Detailed Description

Libffi 3.3 was released in November 2019, about a year ago. Since then, Intel Control-flow Enforcement Technology support has been added, which is a desirable feature for Fedora. Fedora is currently bundling libffi 3.1, released in 2014. Due to the slow release schedule of libffi, this Change Request is targetting an unofficial "3.3.9000" source tree in order to bring in post-3.3 changes needed by Fedora (FIXME modify wording as libffi 3.4 schedule solidifies)

Note that this change will require an SONAME bump due to ABI changes. Because this affects Python, a side-tagged build of libffi, Python, and DNF is recommended to stage this change. No compat package is planned, packages using libffi must rebuild. Approximately 38 packages depend on libffi.so.6; approximately 158 depend on libffi.rpm.

Feedback

Benefit to Fedora

Stay up to date with upstream libffi, including bug fixes et al.

Stay compatible with other distros which have updated already.

Add support for Intel CET and Power10

Scope

Proposal owners: Update to libffi 3.3 plus other upstream patches (or 3.4 if scheduled in time)

Other developers: Packages which link against libffi must be rebuilt. Depending on your API usage, some code changes might be needed as well.

Release engineering: #Releng issue number (a check of an impact with Release Engineering is needed)

Policies and guidelines: The policies and guidelines do not need to be updated.

Trademark approval: N/A (not needed for this Change)

Alignment with Objectives: None

Upgrade/compatibility impact

Packages built against the previous version of libffi will need to be upgraded in sync with this change, during any upgrade. Conversely, updating packages that use libffi will require libffi also be upgraded.

How To Test

libffi includes its own testsuite. However, running Python's test suite should also be done.

User Experience

The new version of libffi, aside from the usual internal bugfixes and tweaks, introduces support for Intel CET and Power10.

Dependencies

Approximately 38 packages depend on libffi.so.6 and will need rebuilds. Approximately 158 packages depend on libffi's RPM.

$ dnf repoquery --whatrequires libffi.so.6
cjs-1:4.7.0-0.2.20201019gitbefc11a.fc34.i686
ecl-0:20.4.24-3.fc33.i686
gjs-0:1.66.1-3.fc34.i686
glib2-0:2.67.0-1.fc34.i686
gnustep-base-libs-0:1.27.0-4.fc33.i686
gobject-introspection-0:1.66.1-1.fc34.i686
gobject-introspection-devel-0:1.66.1-1.fc34.i686
guile-5:2.0.14-22.fc34.i686
guile22-0:2.2.6-6.fc34.i686
libffi-devel-0:3.1-26.fc33.i686
librep-0:0.92.7-12.fc33.i686
libwayland-client-0:1.18.0-2.fc33.i686
libwayland-cursor-0:1.18.0-2.fc33.i686
libwayland-server-0:1.18.0-2.fc33.i686
llvm-libs-0:11.0.0-2.fc34.i686
llvm10-libs-0:10.0.0-10.fc34.i686
llvm5.0-libs-0:5.0.1-11.fc32.i686
llvm6.0-libs-0:6.0.1-10.fc32.i686
llvm7.0-libs-0:7.0.1-7.fc34.i686
llvm9.0-libs-0:9.0.1-8.fc33.i686
moarvm-0:0.2020.07-1.fc34.i686
p11-kit-0:0.23.21-2.fc34.i686
polyml-libs-0:5.8.1-2.fc33.i686
pygobject2-0:2.28.7-11.fc33.i686
pypy-libs-0:7.3.1-2.fc33.i686
pypy3-0:7.3.1-3.fc33.i686
python2.7-0:2.7.18-6.fc34.i686
python3-debug-0:3.9.0-1.fc34.i686
python3-gobject-base-0:3.38.0-2.fc34.i686
python3-libs-0:3.9.0-1.fc34.i686
python3.10-0:3.10.0~a1-2.fc34.i686
python3.5-0:3.5.10-3.fc34.i686
python3.6-0:3.6.12-3.fc34.i686
python3.7-0:3.7.9-3.fc34.i686
python3.8-0:3.8.6-2.fc34.i686
racket-minimal-0:7.4-3.fc33.i686
ruby-libs-0:2.7.2-135.fc34.i686
yosys-0:0.9-8.fc34.i686

Contingency Plan

Contingency mechanism: Revert to libffi 3.1
Contingency deadline: Beta freeze, or any mass rebuild.
Blocks release? No
Blocks product? N/A

Documentation

libffi includes its own documentation. No additional documentation work is required.

Release Notes

libffi does not public formal release notes. A change list can be found in libffi's git history: https://github.com/libffi/libffi/commits/master

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