We unfortunately don't have any scripts to deal with version differences.
Our technique has been to make two (or more) versions of a file, typically a
less aggressive version for 2.6x and older, and one using new features for
the newer releases. Its a shame that there is no "if" clause that is usable
back in 2.6x, but...
Since it seems that your only problem at the moment is ifplugin lines (I
assume around tests that would fail with a missing plugin) you could
trivially make two versions of your rules. Make the current version by hand
as you do currently. Then run a trivial script that will look for the
ifplugin groups and create a new file, deleting the lines in the plugin
clause.
This gives you two versions on the server with no real effort on your part
(once you write the stripping script). Then the only effort is publishing
the fact that there is zmi_german and zmi_german26x, and telling people to
pick the right file for their version.
Loren
