rust-lang / rust-lang/rust-bindgen

How to handle "structural" but not API changes in headers?

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Description

I am searching advice on how this can be handled gracefully other than keeping a project-local header that is used to generate bindings (or pre-generated bindings).

Input C/C++ Header

Recently - with Linux 6.6 - the connector uapi headers changed in a bindgen-binding incompatible way, please check out the following diff:

diff --git a/include/uapi/linux/cn_proc.h b/include/uapi/linux/cn_proc.h
index db210625cee8..6a06fb424313 100644
--- a/include/uapi/linux/cn_proc.h
+++ b/include/uapi/linux/cn_proc.h
@@ -30,6 +30,30 @@ enum proc_cn_mcast_op {
 	PROC_CN_MCAST_IGNORE = 2
 };

+enum proc_cn_event {
+	/* Use successive bits so the enums can be used to record
+	 * sets of events as well
+	 */
+	PROC_EVENT_NONE = 0x00000000,
+	PROC_EVENT_FORK = 0x00000001,
+	PROC_EVENT_EXEC = 0x00000002,
+	PROC_EVENT_UID  = 0x00000004,
+	PROC_EVENT_GID  = 0x00000040,
+	PROC_EVENT_SID  = 0x00000080,
+	PROC_EVENT_PTRACE = 0x00000100,
+	PROC_EVENT_COMM = 0x00000200,
+	/* "next" should be 0x00000400 */
+	/* "last" is the last process event: exit,
+	 * while "next to last" is coredumping event
+	 */
+	PROC_EVENT_COREDUMP = 0x40000000,
+	PROC_EVENT_EXIT = 0x80000000
+};
+
+struct proc_input {
+	enum proc_cn_mcast_op mcast_op;
+};
+
 /*
  * From the user's point of view, the process
  * ID is the thread group ID and thread ID is the internal
@@ -44,24 +68,7 @@ enum proc_cn_mcast_op {
  */

 struct proc_event {
-	enum what {
-		/* Use successive bits so the enums can be used to record
-		 * sets of events as well
-		 */
-		PROC_EVENT_NONE = 0x00000000,
-		PROC_EVENT_FORK = 0x00000001,
-		PROC_EVENT_EXEC = 0x00000002,
-		PROC_EVENT_UID  = 0x00000004,
-		PROC_EVENT_GID  = 0x00000040,
-		PROC_EVENT_SID  = 0x00000080,
-		PROC_EVENT_PTRACE = 0x00000100,
-		PROC_EVENT_COMM = 0x00000200,
-		/* "next" should be 0x00000400 */
-		/* "last" is the last process event: exit,
-		 * while "next to last" is coredumping event */
-		PROC_EVENT_COREDUMP = 0x40000000,
-		PROC_EVENT_EXIT = 0x80000000
-	} what;
+	enum proc_cn_event what;
 	__u32 cpu;
 	__u64 __attribute__((aligned(8))) timestamp_ns;
 		/* Number of nano seconds since system boot */
Bindgen Invocation
bindgen::Builder::default()
        .header("include/wrapper.h")
        .derive_debug(true)
        .parse_callbacks(Box::new(bindgen::CargoCallbacks::new()))
        .generate()
Actual Results

The previously generated type name proc_event_what is now called proc_cn_event.

Expected Results

This is the expected result, but is does break things after bindgen where no breakage is happening in C. And I also don't see how bindgen could do anything else really.

Work-Around

As alluded in the beginning; my current work-around is to keep a local copy of the header I expect.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start with the Linux 6.6 cn_proc.h diff, the include/wrapper.h input, and the shown bindgen::Builder invocation. Compare the generated proc_event_what and proc_cn_event names and investigate how structural header changes could preserve compatibility. Done should be a documented or implemented strategy that addresses this change without requiring a project-local header.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
c, cpp, rust
Domain
tooling
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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