Restructure inline namespace and allow version component to be disabled (#3683)

This commit is contained in:
Florian Albrechtskirchinger
2022-08-10 20:24:16 +02:00
committed by GitHub
parent 93112fbf4d
commit 0e61ee8b07
21 changed files with 500 additions and 99 deletions

View File

@@ -0,0 +1,93 @@
# `nlohmann` Namespace
The 3.11.0 release introduced an
[inline namespace](https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/namespace#Inline_namespaces) to allow different parts of
a codebase to safely use different versions of the JSON library as long as they never exchange instances of library
types.
## Structure
The complete default namespace name is derived as follows:
- The root namespace is always `nlohmann`.
- The inline namespace starts with `json_abi` and is followed by serveral optional ABI tags according to the value of
these ABI-affecting macros, in order:
- [`JSON_DIAGNOSTICS`](../api/macros/json_diagnostics.md) defined non-zero appends `_diag`.
- [`JSON_USE_LEGACY_DISCARDED_VALUE_COMPARISON`](../api/macros/json_use_legacy_discarded_value_comparison.md)
defined non-zero appends `_ldvcmp`.
- The inline namespace ends with the suffix `_v` followed by the 3 components of the version number separated by
underscores. To omit the version component, see [Disabling the version component](#disabling-the-version-component)
below.
For example, the namespace name for version 3.11.2 with `JSON_DIAGNOSTICS` defined to `1` is:
```cpp
nlohmann::json_abi_diag_v3_11_2
```
## Purpose
Several incompatibilities have been observed. Amongst the most common ones is linking code compiled with different
definitions of [`JSON_DIAGNOSTICS`](../api/macros/json_diagnostics.md). This is illustrated in the diagram below.
```plantuml
[**nlohmann_json (v3.10.5)**\nJSON_DIAGNOSTICS=0] as [json]
[**nlohmann_json (v3.10.5)**\nJSON_DIAGNOSTICS=1] as [json_diag]
[**some_library**] as [library]
[**application**] as [app]
[library] ..|> [json]
[app] ..|> [json_diag]
[app] ..|>[library]
```
In releases prior to 3.11.0, mixing any version of the JSON library with different `JSON_DIAGNOSTICS` settings would
result in a crashing application. If `some_library` never passes instances of JSON library types to the application,
this scenario became safe in version 3.11.0 and above due to the inline namespace yielding distinct symbol names.
## Limitations
Neither the compiler nor the linker will issue as much as a warning when translation units intended to be linked
together and that include different versions and/or configurations of the JSON library exchange and use library
types.
There is an exception when forward declarations are used (i.e., when including `json_fwd.hpp`) in which case the linker
may complain about undefined references.
## Disabling the version component
Different versions are not necessarily ABI-incompatible, but the project does not actively track changes in the ABI and
recommends that all parts of a codebase exchanging library types be built with the same version. Users can, **at their
own risk**, disable the version component of the linline namespace, allowing different versions but not
configurations to be used in cases where the linker would otherwise output undefined reference errors.
To do so, define [`NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_NO_VERSION`](../api/macros/nlohmann_json_namespace_no_version.md) to `1`.
This applies to version 3.11.2 and above only, versions 3.11.0 and 3.11.1 can apply the technique described in the next
section to emulate the effect of the `NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_NO_VERSION` macro.
!!! danger "Use at your own risk"
Disabling the namespace version component and mixing ABI-incompatible versions will result in crashes or incorrect
behavior. You have been warned!
## Disabling the inline namespace completely
When interoperability with code using a pre-3.11.0 version of the library is required, users can, **at their own risk**
restore the old namespace layout by redefining
[`NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_BEGIN, NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_END`](../api/macros/nlohmann_json_namespace_begin.md) as
follows:
```cpp
#define NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_BEGIN namespace nlohmann {
#define NLOHMANN_JSON_NAMESPACE_END }
```
!!! danger "Use at your own risk"
Overriding the namespace and mixing ABI-incompatible versions will result in crashes or incorrect behavior. You
have been warned!
## Version history
- Introduced inline namespace (`json_v3_11_0[_abi-tag]*`) in version 3.11.0.
- Changed structure of inline namespace in version 3.11.2.