I'm using <binary-compatibility-validator> and kotlinx.serialization synthetic constructors show up ...

mbonnin

02/24/2023, 8:57 PM

I'm using binary-compatibility-validator and kotlinx.serialization synthetic constructors show up in the API dump (the ones that take a

SerializationConstructorMarker

as last parameter). My understanding is that they're only used from the companion serializer. Would it be possible to hide them? Maybe make it internal? Or do they need to actually be public?

Emil Kantis

02/25/2023, 11:19 AM

Doesn’t it make sense that it’s part of the API? If you remove the @Serializable, consumers will no longer be able to use your type with KxS out of the box. 🤔

mbonnin

02/25/2023, 11:22 AM

I'm OK with Companion and serialiser being public. But the synthetic class constructor is an implementation detail IMO

Adam S

02/25/2023, 4:00 PM

are the constructors annotated with anything? For example,

@JvmSynthetic

? https://kotlinlang.org/api/latest/jvm/stdlib/kotlin.jvm/-jvm-synthetic/ If they were, could BCV be set to ignore them?

mbonnin

02/25/2023, 4:02 PM

Been thinking about that but I don't think BCV can ignore all synthetic symbols. If you take default arguments for an example, they're also using a synthetic method and this one is part of the binary API

Adam S

02/25/2023, 4:11 PM

yeah good point. It looks like the constructors are annotated with

@Deprecated

though. You could argue that all deprecated declarations should be excluded from the

.api

Emil Kantis

02/25/2023, 4:12 PM

Deprecated methods are still necessary for compatibility. I think it’s dangerous to filter them

Adam S

02/25/2023, 4:12 PM

alternatively, you could a

doLast {}

in the Gradle tasks with some regex remove them from the

.api

files

Adam S

02/25/2023, 4:13 PM

anyway - these are workarounds. I think it’s a good feature request for KxS to add some sort of annotation marker, and for BCV to allow for more complex exclusions.

mbonnin

02/25/2023, 4:13 PM

I'm thinking marking it internal in the Kotlin Metadata would work

mbonnin

02/25/2023, 4:14 PM

BCV reads the metadata

mbonnin

02/25/2023, 4:18 PM

Issue created there: https://github.com/Kotlin/kotlinx.serialization/issues/2209

Adam S

02/25/2023, 4:19 PM

do you have an example of what you want to exclude from the