[spauldo]

You're confusing two different things.

For most C and C++ software, you use the system packaging which uses libraries that (usually) have stable ABIs. If your program uses one of those problematic libraries, you might need to recompile your program when you update the library, but most of the time there's no problem.

For your company's custom mission critical application where you need total control of the dependencies, then yes you need to manage it yourself.

[sebastos]

Ok - it sounds like you’re right, but I think despite your clarification I remain confused. Isn’t the linked post all about how those two things always have a mingling at the boundary? Like, suppose I want to develop and distribute a c++ user-space application in a cross platform way. I want to manage all my dependencies at the language level, and then there’s some collection of system libraries that I may or may not decide to rely on. How do I manage and communicate that surface area in a cross platform and scalable way? And what does this feel like for a developer - do you just run tests for every supported platform in a separate docker container?

[hbfbdhdjd]

> For most C and C++ software, you use the system packaging which uses libraries that (usually) have stable ABIs.

Yes, because this idiotic legacy pile of shit you love makes it impartial to do anything else.