Bug#54985: debian-policy: handling of shared libraries

[Brian May <bam@debian.org>]

>>>>> "Ian" == Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk> writes:
 
    Ian> However, with the current arrangement I can't do that.
    Ian> Whenever I want to upgrade a binary package I have to update
    Ian> the libraries that it depends on to at least as recent a
    Ian> version.  But, because the runtime libraries and development
    Ian> libraries must be in version lockstep, this means I have to
    Ian> upgrade the development package too.  Then, due to further
    Ian> dependencies, I usually find I have to upgrade my entire
    Ian> development environment, and often including the C and C++
    Ian> compilers and a whole slew of unrelated tools, to the version
    Ian> from unstable.

I am confused, maybe somebody can help clarify.

For example, if I look at libreadline2, libreadlineg2 and libreadline4
can all be installed at the same time.  Isn't it then simply a matter
of selecting the development package that corresponds with the
required version?

Of course, this won't help if a new and incompatable version of a
library has the same major version, (eg glibc 2.1 vs glibc 2.0), and
hence cannot be installed at the same time, but perhaps these could be
treated as special cases where the symlink *is* replaced by the actual
file, especially for older versions of the library? eg you could[1]
have a libc6.0-dev package that does just this, and only people who
really want this backward functionality would be affected.

Note:
[1] this might be a bad example, as there might be other issues in this
particular case.
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>