Re: What's the deal with the mpfr versioning? libmpfr4 vs. libmpfr6
>> Funny thing is, this is what the versioning says on those pages:
>> Package: libmpfr4 (3.1.6-1)
>> Package: libmpfr6 (4.0.1-1)
>>
>> ...ok, that's strange. Even weirder, they are both built from the same
>> sources: mpfr-4.0.1-1.
Indeed, I find that odd.
I suspect that the "3.1.6-1" in the "title" and the "4.0.1-1" in the
"download from source" refer to different versions of the package
(normally, those two are identical).
Not sure how/why this happens. Maybe the source package has been
upgraded, but the build of the corresponding binaries is still
in-progress?
>> I feel like I'm missing something. For example, what does the
>> "3.1.6-1" mean in libmpfr4?
Usually it means "built from the upstream version 3.1.6 with some local
patches" and the "-1" is a Debian-local sub-version, in case Debian
builds several different versions of the package from the same upstream
versions (e.g. because Debian's own patches are modified, a typical
example being when Debian's security team backports a security patch to
3.1.6).
> The numbers in parentheses are the Debian versions of the package.
> That's how apt would upgrade a package if a bug was fixed within it.
> They're not related to the upstream version.
Doesn't explain why one says "Package: libmpfr4 (3.1.6-1)" and the other
says "[mpfr4_4.0.1-1.dsc]": both "3.1.6-1" and "4.0.1-1" are Debian
version numbers and they are usually the same.
> As for the "6", I'm guessing that they chose that because the library
> version (yes, another versioning sequence) is 6.0.1 as opposed to 4.1.5.
That's right, this is an "API version", so I guess it means that the
4.0.1 upstream code can be used to build both the API version 4 and
the API version 6.
Stefan
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