[openssl-project] A proposal for an updated OpenSSL version scheme (v2)

[Matthias St. Pierre]

I like Richard's approach (with the '8' or another number) and  I don't think it is
contradicting semantic versioning. Maybe a good compromise between  your two
opposing views would be to make the encoding irrelevant to our users by introducing
version check macros like

       OPENSSL_MAKE_VERSION(maj,min,patch)    and
       OPENSSL_VERSION_AT_LEAST(maj,min)

(note: the patch level was omitted from the second macro on purpose)

which enable the application programmer to write code like


    #if OPENSSL_MAKE_VERSION(2.0.0) <= OPENSSL_VERSION_NUMBER
        ...
    #endif


or


    #if OPENSSL_VERSION_AT_LEAST(2,0)
        ...
    #endif


This would work both for programs built for old and new openssl versions.



There was a first failed attempt to introduce such macros, see the threads

https://github.com/openssl/openssl/issues/5961
https://github.com/openssl/openssl/pull/5968


Matthias