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Re: Bug#645895: ftp.debian.org: epoch should be part of the .deb file name



On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 13:42:06 +0200
Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@debian.org> wrote:

> Package: ftp.debian.org
> Severity: normal
> 
> (Cc-ed to debian-devel@l.d.o for their input in whether this would cause
> problems anywhere else in the toolchain.)
> 
> It's a bit confusing that the file names of .debs don't contain the
> epoch.  I think we should change that.

Is there any reason other than aesthetics to change this? There are a
lot of tools which have to build a .deb filename from debian/control
and debian/changelog or from a Packages file. Right now it is trivial
to strip the epoch where necessary - this change requires multiple
character substitution which is far more error prone.

(It would dramatically complicate all the tools I'm using / developing
for Emdebian.)

The epoch is fully visible in the pool/ and has no direct relevance to
the binary package version.

> I would suggest %-encoding it, so foo-1:1 becomes foo_1%251_all.deb.

... which then complicates any number of previously working regular
expressions in tools all over the place.

I think we should not have % characters in .deb filenames if at all
possible.

> The reason to not include a : verbatim is it won't work correctly on all
> file systems (: gets translated to / in the UI on Mac OS X and is
> disallowed for at least FAT, I'm not sure about NTFS).  Also, : is
> traditionally how you reference remote files and devices with tar and
> scp (and probably more tools), so avoiding : in files names seem
> prudent.

Avoiding unnecessary changes would also seem prudent. I for one don't
think this change would be at all helpful.

-- 


Neil Williams
=============
http://www.linux.codehelp.co.uk/

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