Re: Multiple versions of packages...
On 10-Jan-99 Ben Collins wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 10, 1999 at 04:38:54PM -0500, Steven Baker wrote:
>> I was looking at the way some packages are named, and found one very
>> disturbing trend... The naming scheme of packages is not very standardized.
>> Some Glibc pcakges have a g on the end, some have version numbers, and some
>> don't.
>
> Packages that used to have a libc5 version now have the 'g' extension
> in order to tell them apart (used during the bo->hamm). The number
> after it is usually the so version. It's important for some libs since
> version increases can cause incompatibilites, so the suffixed version
> prevents conflicts until binaries are compiled agains the newer libs.
>
>> After some thinking, I decided that a simple fix to the packaging tools
>> would
>> eliminate the need for weird version names. We could then name packages by
>> a
>> descriptive name, and not worry about foobarring the name.
>> If the packaging tools were updated to allow multiple versions of a
>> package
>> to be installed, then we could fix some of the weird naming schemes going
>> on.
>
> Multiple versions of libraries can be very bad if not controlled by the
> package. Allowing the package tools to decide this isn't good.
>
Yes, but any change would allow packages to say which libs they conflict
with... There would just have to be version speicifying.
>> I was wondering who a patch to dpkg would have to go through, and if there
>> is
>> demand for this type of thing.
>
> Posting to debian-dpkg is a start.
>
>> The packages that I am specifically referring to are kernel-*<version> and
>> libgtk<version>
>
> These are neccesary evils IMO. libgtk has some inconsistency, that
> requires that extended version numbering.
>
>> I think it's more confusing to look at libgtk1.1.12_1.1.12.deb
>> I don't know about everyone else.
>
> Better than looking at all the error messages from binaries that link
> to the wrong lib :)
>
Yeah, I guess you're right.
> --
> ----- -- - -------- --------- ---- ------- ----- - - --- --------
> Ben Collins <b.m.collins@larc.nasa.gov> Debian GNU/Linux
> UnixGroup Admin - Jordan Systems Inc. bcollins@debian.org
> ------ -- ----- - - ------- ------- -- The Choice of the GNU Generation
>
>
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I can find it myself.
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