On Wed, 2018-02-07 at 13:51 +0000, Ian Jackson wrote: > I suggest something like this wording to replace the following > paragraphs about the epoch: > > Epochs exist to cope with changes to the upstream version numbering > scheme, and some other difficult cases. The epoch is a powerful > tool, but increasing the epoch it has downsides and should be > avoided when possible. > > If you think you need to increase the epoch for a package, please > consult debian-devel first.
Is it also the case that today we implicitly require that all versions used in a source package name's history are unique even once the epochs are stripped off (e.g. a given $upstream-$debianrev must be unique and not differ only in the epoch)? If so then should policy say that explicitly and/or should lintian check/warn if it isn't? Ian.