xash3d-fwgs/Documentation/extensions/library-naming.md

I propose a new library naming scheme, which will allow to distribute mods and games in single archive to different operating systems and CPUs:

Legend:

• $os -- Q_buildos() return value, in lower case.
• $arch -- Q_buildarch() return value, in lower case.
• $ext -- OS-specific extension: dll, so, dylib, etc.

The scheme will be:

1. Client library:

• client.$ext for Win/Lin/Mac with x86.
• client_$arch.$ext for Win/Lin/Mac with NON-x86.
• client_$os_$arch.$ext for everything else.

2. Menu library:

• menu.$ext for Win/Lin/Mac with x86.
• menu_$arch.$ext for Win/Lin/Mac with NON-x86.
• menu_$os_$arch.$ext for everything else.

3. Server library:

• On Win/Lin/Mac with x86, it MUST use the raw gamedll name for corresponding OS field from gameinfo.txt.
• On Win/Lin/Mac with NON-x86, it MUST use the raw gamedll name for corresponding OS field from gameinfo.txt, but append _$arch before file extension. Like: hl_amd64.so or cs_e2k.so.
• On everything else, it must use gamedll name from gamedll_linux field, but append _$os_$arch before file extension. Like: hl_haiku_amd64.so or cs_freebsd_armhf.so. Why gamedll_linux and not gamedll? Because it looks more logic that way, most operating systems are *nix-like and share code with Linux, rather than Windows.

4. Refresh library: not needed, as RefAPI is not stable and it's not intended to distribute with mods.

For any libraries distributed with engine, naming scheme should be used more convenient for OS port.

Issue #0. Inconsistency between ABI and Q_buildarch.
Resolution: Change Q_buildarch return value to use Debian-styled architectures list: https://www.debian.org/ports/, which includes a special naming for big/little-endian and hard/soft-float ARM.

Issue #1: Build-system integration.
Resolution: implemented as LibraryNaming.cmake and library_naming.py extensions, see

Issue #2(related to #0): Which ARM flavours we actually need to handle?
Resolution: Little-endian only, as there is no known big-endian ARM platforms in the wild. Architecture is coded this way:

• armvxy, where x is ARM instruction set level and y is hard-float ABI presence: hf where hard float ABI used, otherwise l.

Issue #3: Some mods (like The Specialists, Tyrian, ...) already apply suffixes _i386, _i686 to the gamedll path:
Resolution: On x86 on Win/Lin/Mac, don't change anything. Otherwise, strip the _i?86 part and follow the usual scheme.

See discussion: https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgs/issues/39

Issue #4: When distributing game libraries on Android inside an APK, they couldn't be loaded. Resolution: Enable useLegacyPackaging option in build.gradle, when distributing games in APK. Always force game libraries to have lib prefix on Android, regardless if they are packaged in APK or not..