WebKitGTK has a bunch of different confusing API versions. Here are the three API versions that are currently supported by upstream:
- webkitgtk-6.0: This is WebKitGTK for GTK 4 (and libsoup 3), introduced in WebKitGTK 2.40. This is what’s built by default if you build WebKit with
-DPORT=GTK. - webkit2gtk-4.1: This is WebKitGTK for GTK 3 and libsoup 3, introduced in WebKitGTK 2.32. Get this by building with
-DPORT=GTK -DUSE_GTK3=ON. - webkit2gtk-4.0: This is WebKitGTK for GTK 3 and libsoup 2, introduced in WebKitGTK 2.6. Get this by building with
-DPORT=GTK -DUSE_GTK3=ON -DUSE_SOUP2=ON.
webkitgtk-6.0 contains a bunch of API changes, and all deprecated APIs were removed. If you’re upgrading to webkitgtk-6.0, then you’re also upgrading your application from GTK 3 to GTK 4, and have to adapt to much bigger GTK API changes anyway, so this seemed like a good opportunity to break compatibility and fix old mistakes for the first time in a very long time.
webkit2gtk-4.1 is exactly the same as webkit2gtk-4.0, except for the libsoup API version that it links against.
webkit2gtk-4.0 is — remarkably — mostly API stable since it was released in September 2014. Some particular C APIs have been deprecated and don’t work properly anymore, but no stable C APIs have been removed during this time, and library ABI is maintained. (Caveat: WebKitGTK used to have unstable DOM APIs, some of which were removed before the DOM API was eventually stabilized. Nowadays, the DOM APIs are all stable but deprecated in webkit2gtk-4.1 and webkit2gtk-4.0, and removed in webkitgtk-6.0.)
If you are interested in history, here are the older API versions that do not matter anymore:
- webkit2gtk-5.0: This was an unstable API version used during development of the GTK 4 API, intended for WebKit developers rather than application developers. It was obsoleted by webkitgtk-6.0 in WebKitGTK 2.40.
- webkit2gtk-3.0: original API version of WebKitGTK for GTK 3 and libsoup 2, obsoleted by webkit2gtk-4.0. This was the original “WebKit 2” API version, which was only used by a few applications before it was removed one decade ago (history).
- webkitgtk-3.0: note the missing “2”, this is “WebKit 1” (predating the modern multiprocess architecture) for GTK 3. This API version was widely-used on Linux, and its removal one decade ago precipitated a security crisis which I called The Great API Break. (This crisis was worth it. Modern WebKit’s multiprocess architecture is far more secure than the old single-process architecture.)
- webkitgtk-1.0: the original WebKitGTK API version, this is “WebKit 1” for GTK 2. This API version was also widely-used on Linux before it was removed in The Great API Break.
Fedora and RHEL users, are you confused by all the different confusing downstream package names? Here is your map:
- webkitgtk6.0, webkit2gtk4.1, and webkit2gtk4.0: This is the current binary package naming in Fedora, corresponding precisely to the WebKitGTK API version to reduce confusion.
- webkit2gtk3: old name for webkit2gtk4.0, still used in RHEL 9 and RHEL 8
- webkitgtk4: even older name for webkit2gtk4.0, still used in RHEL 7
- webkitgtk3: this is the webkit2gtk-3.0 API version, still used in RHEL 7
- webkitgtk: this is webkitgtk-1.0, used in RHEL 6
Notably, webkit2gtk4.0, webkit2gtk3, and webkitgtk4 are all the same thing.
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