Re: The future of src:ntp

[Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>]

On Sun, 2022-01-23 at 15:12:49 -0600, Richard Laager wrote:
> On 1/19/22 15:04, Bernhard Schmidt wrote:
> > On 19.01.22 20:34, Richard Laager wrote:
> > > 2. I create transitional binary packages in src:ntpsec:

> I got to thinking about this more. This won't work, because src:ntp is
> 1:4.2.8p15+dfsg-1 and src:ntpsec is 1.2.1+dfsg1-2. I would need an epoch (of
> 2, since ntp already has an epoch of 1) on ntpsec in order for src:ntpsec's
> transitional bin:ntp package to be newer than src:ntp's bin:ntp package.

Bumping the epoch to 2 here is completely gratuitous and can make a mess
for ntpsec *and* potentially ntp iff upstream got to be improved and we
wanted to reintroduce it in the future.

> It might be technically possible to build a binary package with different
> versioning, but even if it is: 1) I don't know how, and 2) I'm not sure
> whether that's a good idea, especially compared to the alternatives.

Yes, this is the recommended method, that has been used in the past,
and which is mentioned in the dpkg FAQ. You can set arbitrary versions
via dpkg-gencontrol (or indirectly via dh_gencontrol).

Thanks,
Guillem