On 2023-02-17 at 20:48, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 17, 2023 at 07:42:24PM -0600, John Hasler wrote:
>
>> Also, while Debian uses a sane, consistent version numbering system it
>> is not safe to make assumptions about what non-Debian developers do.
>
> The best thing I can say about Debian's version strings is that they
> are documented.
>
> unicorn:~$ grep ^Version:
> /var/lib/apt/lists/ftp.us.debian.org_debian_dists_bullseye_main_binary-amd64_Packages
> | awk '{print length($0), $0}' | sort -rn | sed 's/.* //' | head
> 1.31~pre0.8052aabdd159bc9050e7dc264f33782c5acce05f-1.1
> 0.0~git20201031.beca652+really.git20200323.1b35463-2
> 0.0~git20201031.beca652+really.git20200323.1b35463-2
> 7.3.3+dfsg1-1+0.0~git20210225.1e7ef9e+dfsg-4
> 3.0.7+git.20130130.97b34ece.REALLY.1.0.3-2.1
> 0.16.1+20180422git6becd92d7fce3fc411d7c-4+b3
> 6.1.0~1.1.0+~2.0.1~ds+~6.1.0+~0~20180821-1
> 2.0.1~1.1.0+~2.0.1~ds+~6.1.0+~0~20180821-1
> 1.4.0~rc1+git347-gfc4cb6fc7+dfsg-1+deb11u1
> 1.1.0~1.1.0+~2.0.1~ds+~6.1.0+~0~20180821-1
>
> Every single piece of that line noise has some meaning... to someone. ;-)It's really fairly straightforward when you know the pieces involved. I'm not previously familiar with any of these specific version numbers, but I could explain exactly what each part of any given one of them means, if there were need to do so. (I tried to write up a general explanation that would cover all of them, but it was starting to develop too many moving parts and sub-clauses for that to seem to be worthwhile in the immediate context.) These versions also don't even display one key component of Debian version numbers that isn't found in versions elsewhere: the epoch. That's a number which appears at the start of the version, is delimited from the rest of the version by a colon, and when omitted is automatically treated as being 0. It's used to allow for the case of a version-numbering scheme changing, where the new version would not otherwise sort as greater than the old - e.g., if the old version was date-based (20230217, for a version referencing today's date) and the new one uses more traditional version semantics (1.0.0, or the like). -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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