Package version naming

[Christian Ehrhardt]

On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 3:25 AM Robin Hansson <robinhftw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello Ubuntu Developers,
>
> I wonder what the meaning is of of the package naming like ghc 8.8.1+dfsg1+is+8.6.5+dfsg1-3
> When running "ghc --version" it says "version 8.6.5". Does the initial "8.8.1" mean some stuff from 8.8.1 is back-ported? What about "dfsg1" and "dfsg1-3"
> ?

Hi Robin,
multiple questions in one :-)

- most of the time +is or +really indicate a problem that forced the
people to go back
  e.g. they went to 8.8.1, but later found a big issue
  So they had to go back to 8.6.5 but since upgrades only work with
increasing values a version string like the one you see is
constructed.
  See https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#epochs-should-be-used-sparingly

- dfsg -> removing file forbidden by policy
  See https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMentorsFaq#What_does_.2BIBw-dfsg.2BIB0_or_.2BIBw-ds.2BIB0_in_the_version_string_mean.3F

In general if in doubt, check the changelog of the package which is
accessible in your case with:
  $ apt changelog ghc

There you will for this example find:
  * 8.8.1+dfsg1-1~exp4 was mistakenly targeted to unstable.
   - use 8.6.5 repacked tarball to fix the issue

I hope that helps,
Christian

> Best,
> Robin
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-- 
Christian Ehrhardt
Staff Engineer, Ubuntu Server
Canonical Ltd