I've mixed opinions over the recent breakages I've witnessed in OpenSSL. On one hand, I absolutely hate a library which breaks its API (I think lack of stabili

I've mixed opinions over the recent breakages I've witnessed in OpenSSL. On one hand, I absolutely hate a library which breaks its API (I think lack of stability in interfaces is one of the bigger bane of the software industry and causes numerous issues down the line). But in the specific case with OpenSSL, the breakages are legitimate imho. Most of the breakages I have seen are to clean-up interfaces and have a clear boundary between OpenSSL internals and items controlled by third party apps. Concretely, they are switching from an API which exposed the internal structures directly to a getter/setter pattern. Example in from one of my project: old: ts_response->tst_info->serial new: TS_TST_INFO_get_serial(TS_RESP_get_tst_info(ts_response)) Breaking APIs is always a balancing act, it's not something which must happen willy-nilly, but it's sometimes a necessary evil, and in the specific case of OpenSSL, if the project wants to go forward and improve in quality and stability, they are kind of forced to do it, it's just a bit regrettable that better design decisions had not be made from the start.