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Diffstat (limited to 'CONTRIBUTING.md')
| -rw-r--r-- | CONTRIBUTING.md | 18 |
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diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index d9bc4659e1..aa1a6b9644 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -135,6 +135,24 @@ The above do not apply to the C++ library; this library's ABI should not be considered stable. +# Introducing new features / modifying behavior + + When a new feature is introduced which may affect already deployed code, +it must be disabled by default. For example a new TLS extension should be +enabled when explicitly requested by the application. That can happen for +example with a gnutls_init() flag. + +The same should be followed when an existing function behavior is modified +in a way that may break existing applications which use the API in a +reasonable way. If the existing function allows flags, then a new flag +should be introduced to enable the new behavior. + +When it is necessary, or desireable to enable the new features by default +(e.g., TLS1.3 introduction), the "next" releases should be used (and +introduced if necessary), to allow the modification to be tested for an +extended amount of time. + + # API documentation When introducing a new API, we provide the function documentation as |