On Wed, Feb 14, 2018 at 01:38:53PM -0800, Russ Allbery wrote:
Another way to think of it is that the epoch should really be evaluated as part of the package name rather than the version string--it's basically a mechanism to avoid renaming a package for purely aesthetic reasons.Well, it also has the function of getting rid of the old package and being part of the normal upgrade path. The latter is important. If the previous version had major data loss or security issues, introducing a new package with a different name doesn't have the semantics you want.
Well, epochs don't magically do that either. :) What I can't think of is cases where it wouldn't work to have a new package plus a transition/cleanup package. It's somewhat more work, but that's probably a good thing--and it would make what's going on a lot more obvious.
Mike Stone