Understanding the numbers in package names (?OT)

[Martijn van de Streek]

On Tue, 12 Sep 2006, Shriramana Sharma wrote:

> 1. In libstdc++6-4.1-dev, I understand that 4.1 is the so-called
> version number. But what does 6 mean? I have seen a file called
> libstdc++.so.6 -- is this 6 and that 6 the same? What is its meaning?

Please read http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-sharedlibs.html
for more information on this. It has to do with the 'abi' the file
provides (you can't dynamically link a binary against a library with a
different abi than the binary was compiled for).

> 2. In mysql-common_5.0.22-0ubuntu6.06.2_all.deb, 5.0.22 is the version
> number. What is the 0 before ubuntu? I presume 6.06.2 is the mark of
> the next point release where this package must go?

0ubuntu6.06.2 probably means "it's not in Debian yet, this is the
version that was made for Ubuntu 6.06, and it's revision 2", but you'd
probably have to read the changelog to find out what it means exactly.

> 3. In mozilla-thunderbird_1.5.0.5-0ubuntu0.6.06_i386.deb, again the 0
> before ubuntu. The number after ubuntu cannot be a point release
> number but 6.06 is unmistakable.

Just a different style, again: it's not in Debian so the ubuntu-version
starts with a 0 (so if a Debian version comes out, it has a higher
version number, as -1 is higher than -0ubuntu0

> 4. In kgpg_4%3a3.5.2-0ubuntu8_i386.deb,
> dnsutils_1%253a9.3.2-2ubuntu1.1_i386.deb,
> xserver-xorg-core_1%253a1.0.2-0ubuntu10.4_i386.deb etc, some special
> characters are added and numbers placed before them. Also, the numbers
> after ubuntu here (8 and 1.1) are confusing.

%3a is a colon (:) in ASCII. The colon signifies a 'package epoch'. You
can find out more about this in the Debian Policy, under 5.6.12 

Martijn
-- 
Sorry isn't an excuse when you do something stupid on purpose.
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