Re: What's the deal with the mpfr versioning? libmpfr4 vs. libmpfr6

[David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk>]

On Tue 31 Jul 2018 at 16:27:27 (-0400), Stefan Monnier wrote:
> > I can't find any evidence for that without being told where to look.
> 
> It was in the previous message:
> 
>     https://packages.debian.org/sid/libmpfr4
>     https://packages.debian.org/sid/libmpfr6
> 
> >> 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.
> >
> > I'm not sure you're quoting from here.
> 
> >From https://packages.debian.org/sid/libmpfr4

Oh, OK. I don't know how they maintain the links to sources on the
web page. It looks like they're out of kilter, so it's probably
bug-filing time.

The OP appeared to assert that two different binary packages were
built from the same source, but I could find no *evidence* for
that, ie in the packages themselves.

But just right click on any package, copy and paste its address
into the address bar, rubout the actual filename and you can get to
http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/pool/main/m/mpfr4/
At the bottom of that page there are sources for 3.1.0-5 (debian),
3.1.0 (original), 3.1.2-2 (debian), 3.1.2 (original), 3.1.5-1 (debian),
3.1.5 (original), 3.1.6-1 (debian), 3.1.6 (original), 4.0.1-1 (debian)
and 4.0.1 (original).

> > That
[the 4.0.1 source code can build both versions under discussion]
> > seems unlikely to me. I'm not going to bother to download the
> > source to find out, but I suspect that the 4 in Packages's "Source:
> > mpfr4" line is spurious,
> 
> Agreed, I hadn't noticed this little "4" in there.  I have no idea what
> it means.  I was only looking at (and talking about) the Debian
> version numbers and the "4" and "6" of "libmpfr4" and "libmpfr6".

It seems plausible that someone thought it should be in there if and
when versions 1 and 4 were being simultaneously supported around the
time of squeeze≡testing. Just speculation.

Cheers,
David.