我想收集尽可能多的关于。net / clr中API版本控制的信息,特别是API更改如何破坏或不破坏客户端应用程序。首先,让我们定义一些术语:

API change - a change in the publicly visible definition of a type, including any of its public members. This includes changing type and member names, changing base type of a type, adding/removing interfaces from list of implemented interfaces of a type, adding/removing members (including overloads), changing member visibility, renaming method and type parameters, adding default values for method parameters, adding/removing attributes on types and members, and adding/removing generic type parameters on types and members (did I miss anything?). This does not include any changes in member bodies, or any changes to private members (i.e. we do not take into account Reflection).

二进制级中断——一种API更改,导致针对旧版本API编译的客户端程序集可能无法装入新版本。例如:改变方法签名,即使它允许以与以前相同的方式被调用(即:void返回类型/参数默认值重载)。

源代码级中断——API更改会导致针对旧版本API编写的现有代码可能无法使用新版本进行编译。但是,已经编译的客户机程序集与以前一样工作。例如:添加一个新的重载,可能导致之前明确的方法调用出现歧义。

源代码级安静的语义变化——API的变化会导致编写的现有代码针对旧版本的API悄悄地改变其语义,例如通过调用不同的方法。然而,代码应该继续编译,没有警告/错误,以前编译的程序集应该像以前一样工作。示例:在现有类上实现一个新接口,这会导致在重载解析过程中选择不同的重载。

The ultimate goal is to catalogize as many breaking and quiet semantics API changes as possible, and describe exact effect of breakage, and which languages are and are not affected by it. To expand on the latter: while some changes affect all languages universally (e.g. adding a new member to an interface will break implementations of that interface in any language), some require very specific language semantics to enter into play to get a break. This most typically involves method overloading, and, in general, anything having to do with implicit type conversions. There doesn't seem to be any way to define the "least common denominator" here even for CLS-conformant languages (i.e. those conforming at least to rules of "CLS consumer" as defined in CLI spec) - though I'll appreciate if someone corrects me as being wrong here - so this will have to go language by language. Those of most interest are naturally the ones that come with .NET out of the box: C#, VB and F#; but others, such as IronPython, IronRuby, Delphi Prism etc are also relevant. The more of a corner case it is, the more interesting it will be - things like removing members are pretty self-evident, but subtle interactions between e.g. method overloading, optional/default parameters, lambda type inference, and conversion operators can be very surprising at times.

这里有几个例子:

添加新的方法重载

Kind:源级中断

受影响的语言:c#, VB, f#

更改前的API:

public class Foo
{
    public void Bar(IEnumerable x);
}

更改后的API:

public class Foo
{
    public void Bar(IEnumerable x);
    public void Bar(ICloneable x);
}

样例客户端代码在更改前工作,更改后失效:

new Foo().Bar(new int[0]);

添加新的隐式转换运算符重载

Kind:源级中断。

受影响的语言:c#, VB

不受影响语言:f#

更改前的API:

public class Foo
{
    public static implicit operator int ();
}

更改后的API:

public class Foo
{
    public static implicit operator int ();
    public static implicit operator float ();
}

样例客户端代码在更改前工作,更改后失效:

void Bar(int x);
void Bar(float x);
Bar(new Foo());

注意:f#并没有被破坏,因为它对重载操作符没有任何语言级别的支持,既不是显式的也不是隐式的——两者都必须作为op_Explicit和op_Implicit方法直接调用。

添加新的实例方法

Kind:源级安静语义更改。

受影响的语言:c#, VB

不受影响语言:f#

更改前的API:

public class Foo
{
}

更改后的API:

public class Foo
{
    public void Bar();
}

客户端代码示例:

public static class FooExtensions
{
    public void Bar(this Foo foo);
}

new Foo().Bar();

注意:f#并没有被破坏,因为它没有对ExtensionMethodAttribute的语言级支持,并且需要将CLS扩展方法作为静态方法调用。


当前回答

到常量的静态只读转换

类型:二进制级别的中断

受影响的语言:c#, VB和f#

更改前的API:

public static class Foo
{
    public static readonly string Bar = "Value";
}

更改后的API:

public static class Foo
{
    public const string Bar = "Value";
}

所有客户端都需要重新编译以针对新的更改,否则会抛出MissingFieldException异常。

其他回答

当我发现它时,这一点非常不明显,特别是考虑到接口的相同情况。这根本不是一个休息,但我决定把它包括在内,这是足够令人惊讶的:

将类成员重构为基类

Kind:不休息!

受影响的语言:无(即没有损坏)

更改前的API:

class Foo
{
    public virtual void Bar() {}
    public virtual void Baz() {}
}

更改后的API:

class FooBase
{
    public virtual void Bar() {}
}

class Foo : FooBase
{
    public virtual void Baz() {}
}

在整个更改过程中保持工作的示例代码(即使我预计它会中断):

// C++/CLI
ref class Derived : Foo
{
   public virtual void Baz() {{

   // Explicit override    
   public virtual void BarOverride() = Foo::Bar {}
};

注:

C++/CLI is the only .NET language that has a construct analogous to explicit interface implementation for virtual base class members - "explicit override". I fully expected that to result in the same kind of breakage as when moving interface members to a base interface (since IL generated for explicit override is the same as for explicit implementation). To my surprise, this is not the case - even though generated IL still specifies that BarOverride overrides Foo::Bar rather than FooBase::Bar, assembly loader is smart enough to substitute one for another correctly without any complaints - apparently, the fact that Foo is a class is what makes the difference. Go figure...

将字段更改为属性

打破:API

受影响语言:Visual Basic和c# *

当你在visual basic中将一个普通的字段或变量更改为属性时,以任何方式引用该成员的任何外部代码都需要重新编译。

更改前的API:

Public Class Foo    
    Public Shared Bar As String = ""    
End Class

API变更后:

Public Class Foo
    Private Shared _Bar As String = ""
    Public Shared Property Bar As String
        Get
            Return _Bar
        End Get
        Set(value As String)
            _Bar = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class    

示例客户端代码,可以工作,但随后被破坏:

Foo.Bar = "foobar"

名称空间之外

源级中断/源级安静语义更改

由于vb中命名空间解析的工作方式。Net中,向库中添加名称空间会导致使用以前版本的API编译的Visual Basic代码不能使用新版本编译。

示例客户端代码:

Imports System
Imports Api.SomeNamespace

Public Class Foo
    Public Sub Bar()
        Dim dr As Data.DataRow
    End Sub
End Class

如果API的新版本添加了API . somenamespace。数据,则上述代码将无法编译。

使用项目级名称空间导入会变得更加复杂。如果上面的代码中省略了Imports System,但是在项目级别导入了System名称空间,那么代码仍然可能导致错误。

然而,如果Api在它的Api. somenamspace . data命名空间中包含一个类DataRow,那么代码将被编译,但dr将是System.Data.DataRow的一个实例,当使用旧版本的Api编译时,当使用新版本的Api编译时,则是Api. somenamspace . data .DataRow。

参数重命名

源代码级打破

改变参数的名称是vb.net从版本7(?)(。Net版本1?)和c#. Net版本4(。Net版本4)。

更改前的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public static void Bar(string x) {
           ...
        }
    }
}

更改后的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public static void Bar(string y) {
           ...
        }
    }
}

示例客户端代码:

Api.SomeNamespace.Foo.Bar(x:"hi"); //C#
Api.SomeNamespace.Foo.Bar(x:="hi") 'VB

参考参数

源代码级打破

添加具有相同签名的方法重写,只是其中一个参数是通过引用而不是通过值传递的,这将导致引用API的vb源代码无法解析该函数。Visual Basic没有办法(?)在调用点区分这些方法,除非它们有不同的参数名,所以这样的更改可能导致两个成员在vb代码中都不可用。

更改前的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public static void Bar(string x) {
           ...
        }
    }
}

更改后的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public static void Bar(string x) {
           ...
        }
        public static void Bar(ref string x) {
           ...
        }
    }
}

示例客户端代码:

Api.SomeNamespace.Foo.Bar(str)

从字段到属性更改

二进制级中断/源代码级中断

除了明显的二进制级中断外,如果通过引用将成员传递给方法,还可能导致源级中断。

更改前的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public int Bar;
    }
}

更改后的API:

namespace SomeNamespace {
    public class Foo {
        public int Bar { get; set; }
    }
}

示例客户端代码:

FooBar(ref Api.SomeNamespace.Foo.Bar);

这种情况在实践中是非常罕见的,但当它发生时还是令人惊讶的。

添加新的非重载成员

Kind:源级中断或安静的语义更改。

受影响的语言:c#, VB

不受影响的语言:f#, c++ /CLI

更改前的API:

public class Foo
{
}

更改后的API:

public class Foo
{
    public void Frob() {}
}

被更改破坏的示例客户端代码:

class Bar
{
    public void Frob() {}
}

class Program
{
    static void Qux(Action<Foo> a)
    {
    }

    static void Qux(Action<Bar> a)
    {
    }

    static void Main()
    {
        Qux(x => x.Frob());        
    }
}

注:

这里的问题是由c#和VB中存在重载解析的lambda类型推断引起的。这里使用了一种有限形式的duck类型,通过检查lambda的主体对给定类型是否有意义来打破多个类型匹配的关系——如果只有一种类型产生可编译的主体,则选择该类型。

The danger here is that client code may have an overloaded method group where some methods take arguments of his own types, and others take arguments of types exposed by your library. If any of his code then relies on type inference algorithm to determine the correct method based solely on presence or absence of members, then adding a new member to one of your types with the same name as in one of the client's types can potentially throw inference off, resulting in ambiguity during overload resolution.

请注意,本例中的类型Foo和Bar在任何方面都没有关联,不是通过继承或其他方式。仅仅在一个方法组中使用它们就足以触发这种情况,如果这种情况发生在客户端代码中,则您无法控制它。

The sample code above demonstrates a simpler situation where this is a source-level break (i.e. compiler error results). However, this can also be a silent semantics change, if the overload that was chosen via inference had other arguments which would otherwise cause it to be ranked below (e.g. optional arguments with default values, or type mismatch between declared and actual argument requiring an implicit conversion). In such scenario, the overload resolution will no longer fail, but a different overload will be quietly selected by the compiler. In practice, however, it is very hard to run into this case without carefully constructing method signatures to deliberately cause it.

更改方法签名

类型:二进制级别的中断

受影响的语言:c#(最有可能是VB和f#,但未经测试)

更改前的API

public static class Foo
{
    public static void bar(int i);
}

更改后的API

public static class Foo
{
    public static bool bar(int i);
}

在更改前工作的示例客户端代码

Foo.bar(13);