Re: so what? Re: Debian development modem
On Tue, 9 Jun 1998, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > <snip> ... but there are times when you
> > just have to make a clean break. Going between libc versions was one
> > of those times, as was going from a.out to elf. Otherwise, what are
> > major number changes for?
>
> This is simply not true. When we moved from a.out to ELF both systems
> were fully backward- and forward- compatible. a.out and ELF systems
> could run both a.out and ELF binaries (provided you installed the
> right compatibility packages), and you could compile both a.out and
> ELF binaries on either.
Perhaps a better example than a.out vs. elf would be the move from termcap
to terminfo. That move broke all the packages which used curses (and
some other things?). The replacement terminfo-compatible packages would
not run successfully on an older system which was set up for termcap
instead of terminfo.
Also, (please bear with be here -- I'm trying to get back up to speed. I
had a hamm system up for a few months a year or so ago, but I lost that in
a crash, I've been away from debian in the meantime, and I'm currently
just running bo) aren't there some incompatibilities between bo and hamm?
I recall seeing something about utmp/wtmp differences.
> I think in particular that we should require that there be a set of
> packages you can install that will allow you to build packages both
> for the `new' system and the `old' system (perhaps with a magic rune
> to say which, if they are that radically different).
That seems doable, and could probably have been done for the termcap
to terminfo transition. The mechanics might get a bit messy, though.
somepkg_1.2-3.deb for the `new' release might run out of the box under
the `old' release, or it might need to be rebuilt (e.g., for libc5
instead of libc6), or it might need to be rebuilt with release specific
changes (e.g., to use termcap vs. terminfo, or different utmp/wtmp
mechanics). If a rebuild is needed, with or without release specific
source level changes, is a `-3' package release number for both of
them acceptable and sufficient?
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