There is a tool that can analyze the difference between APIs called japi-compliance. This tool is useful for checking API compatability of different Accumulo versions. To run this tool edit the xml files to specify the location of accumulo core jars and set the library version. Then run the following command.
japi-compliance-checker.pl -skip-deprecated -old japi-accumulo-1.5.xml -new japi-accumulo-1.6.xml -l accumulo
Optionally, you can use the --skip-classes argument with the provided exclude_classes.txt file to skip classes from org.apache.accumulo.core.data that aren't in the public API.
This directory should have a library configuration file for each release on supported lines as well as an in-progress for whatever version is currently the main branch. The examples below all make use of version-specific library definitions.
When looking at a patch release, you should verify that changes introduced are forwards and backwards compatible, per semver.
japi-compliance-checker.pl -old japi-accumulo-1.6.1.xml -new japi-accumulo-1.6.2.xml -l accumulo --skip-classes=exclude_classes.txt
japi-compliance-checker.pl -new japi-accumulo-1.6.1.xml -old japi-accumulo-1.6.2.xml -l accumulo --skip-classes=exclude_classes.txt
When looking at a minor release, you should verify that change are backwards compatible, per semver.
japi-compliance-checker.pl -old japi-accumulo-1.6.1.xml -new japi-accumulo-1.7.0.xml -l accumulo --skip-classes=exclude_classes.txt
When looking at a major release, you should examine removals to make sure they are not capricious. Specifically, you should ensure that they have been deprecated for a full major version.
japi-compliance-checker.pl -old japi-accumulo-1.7.0.xml -new japi-accumulo-2.0.0.xml -l accumulo --skip-classes=exclude_classes.txt