Re: debian/symbols

[Mark Brown <broonie@sirena.org.uk>]

On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 07:13:59PM +0100, Thorsten Alteholz wrote:

>   libctl.so.3 libtcl3 #MINVER#
>    SCM_list_ref@Base
>    SCM_object_property@Base
>    (...)

>    lintian -I -E libctl3_3.0.3-2_i386.deb
>    E: libctl3: symbols-file-contains-current-version-with-debian-revision on symbol SCM_list_ref@Base and 157 others
>    W: libctl3: symbols-file-contains-debian-revision on symbol SCM_list_ref@Base and 157 others
>    W: libctl3: symbols-declares-dependency-on-other-package libtcl3 #MINVER#

> Why does lintian complain about versions in the symbols file? Where did 
> they hide? Where is the declaration of other packages dependencies?  
> (btw. lintian v2.2.0 gives similar resultgs)

The problem is that you haven't specified a version for any of the
symbols so by default they've got the current package version added to
them, including the Debian revision.  You should have something like:

   libctl.so.3 libtcl3 #MINVER#
    SCM_list_ref@Base 1.2.3

where 1.2.3 is the version that symbol was introduced for each symbol.
The goal is to provide the minimum library package versions required by
other packages which link with them, letting the dependencies be as
relaxed as possible.