Editing Linux Standard Base (section)

==Backward compatibility==
[[File:Linux kernel interfaces.svg|thumb|right|upright=1.8|LSB aims to make [[User space|userspace]] binaries portable]]

LSB was designed to be binary-compatible and produced a stable [[application binary interface]] (ABI) for [[independent software vendor]]s.

To provide backward compatibility, the LSB adopted an interface deprecation policy to give application developers enough time to adapt in case an interface was removed from LSB. An interface that is to be removed would first be marked as deprecated in an LSB release; that interface would still be supported in that release and at least two subsequent LSB releases. This allowed the developer to rely on every interface in LSB for a known time and also to plan for changes.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/roadmap | title = LSB Roadmap | publisher = [[Linux Foundation]] | year = 2008 | access-date = 2010-04-26 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110723020015/http://ldn.linuxfoundation.org/lsb/roadmap | archive-date = 2011-07-23 | url-status = dead}}</ref>

LSB&nbsp;5.0 was the first major release that broke [[backward compatibility]] with earlier versions, as it removed [[Qt (software)|Qt]] 3; applications dynamically linked with Qt 3 libraries were not guaranteed to run on all LSB 5.0-compliant distributions.<ref>{{cite web |title=LSB&nbsp;5.0 Release Notes |url=https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/ReleaseNotes50#LSB_5.0_Release_Notes | website=linuxfoundation.org | access-date=3 June 2015 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170708050131/https://wiki.linuxfoundation.org/en/ReleaseNotes50 | archive-date = July 8, 2017}}</ref>