improve meson build system

[vtorri]

• add gnu-symbol-visibility for the library (meson >= 0.48) : https://mesonbuild.com/Release-notes-for-0-48-0.html#keyword-argument-for-gnu-symbol-visibility
• add pic for the library (meson >= 0.46 i think, not sure it appeared before 0.46)

it depends if you want to increase meson version from 0.47 to 0.48 for gnu-symbol-visibility

Vincent Torri

[Cyan4973]

Word of advise regarding version support:
it's generally preferable for build scripts to not be too much reliant on the "bleeding edge" to be effectively used by a diverse ecosystem.
A good rule of thumb is to remain compatible with at least oldest supported Ubuntu LTS version,
which currently is Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver.

[eli-schwartz]

You can use features from newer versions of meson using if meson.version().version_compare('>=0.48').

That being said:

A good rule of thumb is to remain compatible with at least oldest supported Ubuntu LTS version,
which currently is Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver.

The original addition of the meson build script back in 2018 required Meson 0.47, which is too new for Ubuntu 18.04, so bumping that again from 0.47 to 0.48 won't reduce your support.

It is a 3.5 year old release and is broadly available, even if the Ubuntu LTS game offers 5 years of compatibility sometimes people are still willing to sacrifice the oldest one in town in the name of badly needed features.

Depends on what you need, I guess.

[tristan957]

See #1064

[tristan957]

@vtorri would be great if you could give input on the PR since you care about it.

[vtorri]

it depends if the developpers accept to bump the required minimal version of meson

[tristan957]

You should try reading through the PR :)