How do I design APIs for ABI stability for low-latency systems?

Designing APIs for ABI (Application Binary Interface) stability in low-latency systems is crucial for ensuring performance and minimizing disruptions when updates or changes are made. Here are key considerations and strategies to achieve this:

1. Use Versioned Interfaces

Implement versioning in your APIs to allow for backward compatibility. This means when updates are made, previous versions can still be used by consumers of the API.

2. Favor Composition Over Inheritance

Use composition to build complex types rather than relying heavily on class inheritance which can lead to rigid structures and difficulties in maintaining ABI stability.

3. Maintain Stable Data Structures

Design your data structures to remain stable over time. This means avoiding the addition of new fields to existing structures and instead creating new structures for new data requirements.

4. Avoid Breaking Changes

Be cautious about making changes that could break existing clients. This may involve deprecating features gradually while continuing to support older versions.

5. Use Weak Symbols for Dynamic Linking

Weak symbols allow for optional implementations of functions, which can help maintain ABI compatibility when adding new features.

Example API Design

// An example of a versioned API in C++ class DataProcessor_v1 { public: virtual void processData(const Data& data) = 0; }; class DataProcessor_v2 : public DataProcessor_v1 { public: void processData(const Data& data) override { // Implement new processing logic } void processData(const Data& data, const Config& config) { // New overload for additional configuration } };

ABI stability low-latency systems API design versioning composition backward compatibility data structures breaking changes

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