Re: Bug#547272: policy 5.6.16 - Format field: Is it really 1.5?

[Raphael Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>]

On Mon, 05 Oct 2009, Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> > and that it can be more than a version number.
> 
>         I assume this refers to the Format field in the .dsc file.

Yes.

>  Since policy does not currently say anything about the Format field in
>  the .dsc file, we would need to mention any constraints on the Format
>  field, and what the values the field may take. Can you expand on this,
>  please?

It's a version number (<major>.<minor>) like in .changes but it can
optionally be followed by a parenthesis with a name (like in
"3.0 (quilt)").

dpkg-source uses the major number and the content of the parenthesis to
decide which perl module to use to build/unpack the source package:
- 1.0 -> Dpkg::Source::Package::V1
- 3.0 (quilt) -> Dpkg::Source::Package::V3::quilt

The minor number is left to the discretion of each module.

Cheers,
-- 
Raphaël Hertzog