virtual - How to design a C++ API for binary compatible extensibility

Question

I am designing an API for a C++ library which will be distributed in a dll / shared object. The library contains polymorhic classes with virtual functions. I am concerned that if I expose these virtual functions on the DLL API, I cut myself from the possibility of extending the same classes with more virtual functions without breaking binary compatibility with applications built for the previous version of the library.

One option would be to use the PImpl idiom to hide all the classes having virtual functions, but that also seem to have it's limitations: this way applications lose the possibility of subclassing the classes of the library and overriding the virtual methods.

How would you design a API class which can be subclassed in an application, without losing the possibility to extend the API with (not abstract) virtual methods in a new version of the dll while staying backward binary compatible?

Update: the target platforms for the library are windows/msvc and linux/gcc.

Answer 1

Several months ago I wrote an article called "Binary Compatibility of Shared Libraries Implemented in C++ on GNU/Linux Systems" [pdf]. While concepts are similar on Windows system, I'm sure they're not exactly the same. But having read the article you can get a notion on what's going on at C++ binary level that has anything to do with compatibility.

By the way, GCC application binary interface is summarized in a standard document draft "Itanium ABI", so you'll have a formal ground for a coding standard you choose.

Just for a quick example: in GCC you can extend a class with more virtual functions, if no other class inherits it. Read the article for better set of rules.

But anyway, rules are sometimes way too complex to understand. So you might be interested in a tool that verifies compatibility of two given versions: abi-compliance-checker for Linux.