Re: KDE version numbering, (K)ubunt vs. Debian, was: Re: Konsole empty
rhkramer@gmail.com - 23.08.19, 15:40:07 CEST:
> My puzzlement and the answer (afaict): I started to see version
> numbers for KDE apps very different from what I am used to. I found
> out that (at least apparently) KDE has changed their version
> numbering scheme. (It now looks like (at least to me, at a quick
> glance) like the version numbers used by (K)ubuntu but I'm not sure
> whether the scheme is the same or not -- I'd tend to bet that it is.
> I guess I've resolved my puzzlement.
In basic there are two version numbering schemes:
1) YY.MM in lockstep with the KDE Applications release, for example
19.08 or 18.04.
2) An application specific version number.
Now some applications like Konsole tend to use scheme 1 only – at least
since Konsole 19.08:
% konsole --version
konsole 19.08.0
Others like the applications of KDEPIM use scheme 2. But as they are
packaged with KDEPIM, both schemes are used. The upstream bug tracker
https://bugs.kde.org however uses the application specific number.
% kmail --version
kmail2 5.9.3
If you like to find out the YY.MM one, in Debian you can ask package
management:
% LANG=en apt policy kmail | grep Installed
[…]
Installed: 4:18.08.3-1
Both schemes have different advantages and disadvantages:
1) Same version number in all applications. Version numbers get bumped
even without major changes. So a specific KDE application in KDE
Applications 18.08 could be the same as in 19.08.
2) Different version numbers in different applications. Mixed with the
YY.MM numbers it can lead to confusion. Application maintainers bump
version numbers. That may indicate a change in the application or not.
But theoretically version numbers could be more meaningful.
This has been discussed upstream, but no clear conclusion has been
found. Some application maintainers use only scheme 1 others use scheme
2, but release with the KDE Applications bundle, and deal with the
possible confusion, still others release independently and may use
scheme 1 or 2.
Can it be confusing?
Yes, it can. But by comparing "binary --version" versus information from
package management you can get a clearer picture about a specific
application.
Well and then there is the versioning of KDE Frameworks and Plasma. KDE
Frameworks currently is 5.n and they just add 1 to n with every release.
Plasma is 5.x.y and they add one to x for every major release and one to
y for bug fix releases.
As for Jessie: This has still been Plasma 4 and KDE SC 4. I don't go
into detail how that was numbered. It is again different.
As far as I know there is nothing Debian or Ubuntu specific in there.
Debian and Kubuntu developers use scheme 2 for KDE Application packages.
And they use the official Plasma and KDE Frameworks version for their
packages. AFAIK this is not different between Debian and Kubuntu although
Kubuntu may have a newer version of packages at times, at least as
Debian Stable, but sometimes also as Debian Unstable.
Hope this summarizes it quite well.
Best,
--
Martin
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