libmysqlclient shared library version 16 to 18

[Sebastien FLAESCH]

Hi all,

You probably know that the version number of the libmysqlclient.so library has changed from .16 to .18 in version 5.5.11 ...

As result, binaries linked with libmysqlclient.so.16 do no longer work with 5.5.11 and +, so people have to do tricky workarounds such as:

ln -s libmysqlclient.so.18 libmysqlclient.so.16

Of course this is not good practice...

Could anyone explain why the client lib version has changed?

Is the 5.5.11+ client lib no longer compatible with prior versions?

I could not find any information in the changes page:

http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/news-5-5-11.html

If all client libs of 5.5.x versions are compatible, I believe it was a big mistake to change the version number...

Thanks for your help.
Seb