Re: upstream upgrade capable of running in parallel with old version.

["Stefan Lippers-Hollmann" <s.L-H@gmx.de>]

Hi

On Sunday 12 August 2012, Paul Elliott wrote:
> 
> My upstream has released version 7. It is like gtk in that the new version and 
> old version are capable of running on the same system. Names of executables 
> have 7 appended to them instead of 6.
> 
> What is the proper way of handling this?
> 
> ITP a whole new package? Change the control file to allow it?

I would start with considering if co-installing different versions of 
said package is really necessary, just because it's possible doesn't 
necessarily mean that there's a real need for doing that in Debian.

Packaging two versions of the same upstream is a quite significant 
maintenance overhead for you as the maintainer and the distribution in 
general. Considering the gtk situation with many depending packages 
and incompatible changes, it was definately needed - but considering a 
leaf packages (or basically anything standalone) there usually isn't 
such a requirement. For most packages it usually makes more sense to 
prepare the new upstream in experimental and switch once and for all,
once you feel the new upstream is ready for unstable/testing.

Regards
	Stefan Lippers-Hollmann