Re: On bz2 compression in debs

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

I'm not sure if I really want to get into the bz2-vs-gz argument again
but there is a question here that's easy to answer:

Romain Francoise writes ("On bz2 compression in debs"):
>  2) Doesn't the disappearance of 'data.tar.gz' warrant a bump of the
>     binary version number, from 2.0 to, say, 3.0?

No.

The purpose of the version number is to ensure that a .deb which is
apparently compatible but actually incompatible would be rejected.

A naive program which processes a .deb with a data.tar.bz2 instead of
a data.tar.gz will fail if it needs the filesystem archive, just as it
would if the version number were bumped.  But not all programs need
the filesystem archive and those which only need metadata ought not to
be broken by bumping the version number.

Ian.