Build id vs Version number in Synaptic

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Tue, 10 Oct 2017 08:30:57 +0100, Colin Law wrote:
>On 9 October 2017 at 21:31, Jim <jf_byrnes at comcast.net> wrote:
>> Why do some packages use a build id to show the latest version and
>> others seem to use a version number?  For example Libreoffice Calc
>> shows a build id while Firefox shows a version number.
>>
>> This sometimes makes it difficult to determine how current a package
>> in a repository is when comparing it to a version of a program you
>> may have seen on the net.  
>
>Can you give a detailed example of exactly what you mean please?

Probably the OP is confused by the epoch, which is explained by the
manpage and several other sources available by the Internet.