I was looking for a way to really close #373003 (dpkg-dev: deb-control.5
old rule for Version hyphenation). In the end it lead me to the
conclusion that Dpkg should contain a full description of its Version
format, which in turn lead to completly copying the section from Policy
since this is probably the best description available. This of course
again leads to a few followup questions:
1) If I would copy this text, who to credit for it? For now I just
copied the copyright notice from Policy but I suspect that might not be
the whole truth given how old it is.
2) Should we really try to include more documentation of dpkg's
behaviour in dpkg itself? (My answer is a clear yes to that)
If yes, how do we avoid duplication with policy? After all we probably
can't just delete such stuff from policy since there might be
differences what dpkg supports and what policy allows. But not
documenting dpkg features until they are allowed by Policy is not
a good way either.
3) What do people think of this specific case of copying?
Worth it? Should I try to condense the information more?
What should we do with the text is policy?
Comments welcome.
Gruesse,
Frank
---
debian/changelog |2 +
man/ChangeLog |9
man/deb-control.5 |7 ++-
man/deb-version.5 | 124 +
4 files changed, 139 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
create mode 100644 man/deb-version.5
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 6c33f1c..9facda3 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -35,6 +35,8 @@ dpkg (1.14.7) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
Closes: #379418
* Let dpkg-buildpackage error out early if the version number from
the changelog is not a valid Debian version. Closes: #216075
+ * Add an own manpage for Dpkg's version format. Mostly stolen
+from policy. Closes: #373003
[ Updated dpkg translations ]
* Basque (Piarres Beobide). Closes: #440859
diff --git a/man/ChangeLog b/man/ChangeLog
index fcc2e1a..42bdc37 100644
--- a/man/ChangeLog
+++ b/man/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,12 @@
+2007-10-06 Frank Lichtenheld [EMAIL PROTECTED]
+
+ * deb-control.5: Move description of
+ version format to...
+ * deb-version.5: Take the section from
+ policy describing version format and
+ sorting since this is probably as good
+ as it gets for describing these.
+
2007-09-30 Frank Lichtenheld [EMAIL PROTECTED]
* deb-control.5: Remove obsolete sentence regarding
diff --git a/man/deb-control.5 b/man/deb-control.5
index efc40c7..7043ef6 100644
--- a/man/deb-control.5
+++ b/man/deb-control.5
@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@ generate file names by most installation tools.
.BR Version: version string
Typically, this is the original package's version number in whatever form
the program's author uses. It may also include a Debian revision number
-(for non-native packages). If both version and revision are supplied,
-they are separated by a hyphen, `-'. For this reason, the original version
-may not have a hyphen in its version number.
+(for non-native packages). The exact format and sorting algorithm
+are described in
+.BR deb-version (5).
.TP
.BR Maintainer: fullname email
Should be in the format `Joe Bloggs [EMAIL PROTECTED]', and is typically
@@ -219,6 +219,7 @@ Description: GNU grep, egrep and fgrep.
.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR deb (5),
+.BR deb-version (5),
.BR debtags (1),
.BR dpkg (1),
.BR dpkg-deb (1).
diff --git a/man/deb-version.5 b/man/deb-version.5
new file mode 100644
index 000..ea273ec
--- /dev/null
+++ b/man/deb-version.5
@@ -0,0 +1,124 @@
+.\ Author: ??
+.\ Includes text from the Debian Policy by ??
+.TH deb\-version 5 2007-10-06 Debian Project Debian
+.SH NAME
+deb\-version \- Debian package version number format
+.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.RI [ epoch :] upstream_version [\- debian_revision ]
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+Version numbers as used for Debian binary and source packages
+consist of three components. These are:
+.TP
+.I epoch
+This is a single (generally small) unsigned integer. It
+may be omitted, in which case zero is assumed. If it is
+omitted then the \fIupstream_version\fP may not
+contain any colons.
+.IP
+It is provided to allow mistakes in the version numbers
+of older versions of a package, and also a package's
+previous version numbering schemes, to be left behind.
+.TP
+.I upstream_version
+This is the main part of the version number. It is
+usually the version number of the original (upstream)
+package from which the \fI.deb\fP file has been made,
+if this is applicable. Usually this will be in the same
+format as that specified by the upstream author(s);
+however, it may need to be reformatted to fit into the
+package management system's format and comparison
+scheme.
+.IP
+The comparison behavior of the package management system
+with respect to the \fIupstream_version\fP is
+described below. The \fIupstream_version\fP
+portion of the version number is mandatory.
+.IP
+The
