Re: Is there a way to positively, uniquely identify which Debian release a program is running on?

[Petter Reinholdtsen <pere@hungry.com>]

[Steve Greenland]
> Still pointless, because there is basically no reliable connection
> between the contents of /etc/debian_version and what packages are
> installed.

You seem to still discuss this issue as related to making decisions on
package behavior.  That is not the point I am trying to make, and in
that frame I understand why you fail to see the point.  My point is
that it is useful to know what major release of Debian a machine is
using, and for that to work it is better to store that information in
a simple package which can be modified whenever the release
information changes, and to make sure no other information is coded in
that package (so the version info should be moved out of the
base-files package).  If we had that kind of information, I suspect we
could make better informed decisions on security support for different
major releases. :)

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen