Re: beta version numbers?

[Gregor Hoffleit <flight@mathi.uni-heidelberg.de>]

On Wed, Jul 07, 1999 at 05:20:30AM -0700, Joseph Carter wrote:
> On Wed, Jul 07, 1999 at 12:00:13AM +0000, Bradley Bell wrote:
> > has the issue of using things like alpha, beta, and pre in version numbers
> > ever been resolved?  The packaging manual says not to use epochs, so what
> > should we do to make 1.0beta < 1.0?
> 
> 1.0beta6  ->  1-0beta6-1
> 1.0       ->  1.0-1
> 
> knghtbrd@icarus2:~$ dpkg --compare-versions 1-0beta6-1 lt 1.0-1 \
> > && echo true || echo false
> true

Hmm, but how about an 1.2beta6 ?

    1.1 -> 1.1-1
    1.2beta6 -> 1-2beta6-1
    1.2 -> 1.2-1

    freefly:5> dpkg --compare-versions 1.1-1 lt 1-2beta6-1 \
        && echo true|| echo false
    false

My first guess was

    1.2beta6 -> 1.2-0beta6-1

but still

    freefly:8> dpkg --compare-versions 1.2-0beta6-1 lt 1.2-1 \
        && echo true || echo false
    false

The only thing that seems to work would be

    1.2beta6 -> 1.2-0beta6.1

    freefly:16> dpkg --compare-versions 1.2-0beta6.1 lt 1.2-1 \
        && echo true || echo false
    true

with which I feel very uncomfortably.

	Gregor