Re: kernel-image and epoch

[Santiago Vila <sanvila@unex.es>]

On Thu, 21 Sep 2000, you wrote:

> Joseph Carter <knghtbrd@debian.org> wrote:
> 
> > Until Herbert Xu decides to break things once again by using epochs the
> > one way policy says not to use them.  Epochs are NOT FOR PRE VERSIONS.
> 
> Would you mind telling me which version of the policy says that?

Actually, it's in the packaging manual:

   Note that the purpose of epochs is to allow us to leave behind
   mistakes in version numbering, and to cope with situations where the
   version numbering changes. It is not there to cope with version
   numbers containing strings of letters which dpkg cannot interpret
   (such as ALPHA or pre-), [...]

If you have to package something which is version "X" pre, using
something like "X-0.1.pre" as the version number is much better than
using "Xpre-1" and then having to use an epoch for 1:X-1.