Re: The use of epoch in version

[Ben Finney <ben+debian@benfinney.id.au>]

"Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss@iguanasuicide.net> writes:

> On Thursday 28 January 2010 17:34:18 Ben Finney wrote:
> > [a version string starting with ‘1.2.4’] would give the impression
> > that the source being packaged was “really” version 1.2.4 in some
> > sense. I don't get the impression that's true here; the source is
> > still version 1.2.3, just packaged in a different way.
>
> I figures the ~repacked~1.2.3 was probably enough of a tip off.
> Doesn't matter to me.

I prefer it to be more obvious than that. If it's version 1.2.3, that
should be the start of the version, with addenda if needed.

> Yours sort of works:
> bss@rei:~% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3.ds1-1 lt 1.2.4; echo $?
> 0
> bss@rei:~% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3.ds1-1 lt 1.2.3.1; echo $?
> 1
>
> Russ Allbery's is probably best:
> bss@rei:~% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3+real1-1 lt 1.2.4; echo $?
> 0
> bss@rei:~% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3+real1-1 lt 1.2.3.1; echo $?
> 0

Agreed, the ‘+foo’ addendum style is best in this case.

-- 
 \     “As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of |
  `\                                       the demand.” —Josh Billings |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney