Debian Bug report logs - #382612
[PROPOSAL] Document ~ behavior in version numbers

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Jakob Bohm <jbj@image.dk>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: bzr: '~' in Version number violates policy 5.6.12

Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 10:41:06 +0200

Package: bzr
Version: 0.9~rc1-1
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 5.6.12

Policy section 5.6.12 lists the permitted characters in package
version numbers, '~' is NOT on the list, and until less than 14
days ago all packages in the archive were compliant with that
rule.  I know for certain that one of my own mirroring scripts
will refuse to accept '~' in package file names, and others
might do the same.

As explained in policy section 5.6.12, if the upstream version
number does not match the format and semantics specified in
section 5.6.12, the maintainer should reformat the version
number in his upload.

Sincerely

Jakob

Footnote: The actual wording in policy 5.6.12 does not use the
standard phrases specified in policy 1.1, making it difficult to
infer if violation of the specified format should be classified
as serious, normal or wishlist.  Based on the nature of the
information, its citing in the first footnote of policy 1.1 and
the general structure of the English language, I interpret "may
only" as a must requirement not to do something else.  In other
words, it is entirely optional for a version number to contain
the character '+' ("may contain only ... '+'"), but it is
required not to use any characters not enumerated there.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (450, 'unstable'), (400, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /basnxt/bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.17jbj3.4-16
Locale: LANG=en_DK.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_DK.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Message #10 received at 382612@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.iki.fi>

To: Jakob Bohm <jbj@image.dk>, 382612@bugs.debian.org

Cc: control <control@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: Re: Bug#382612: bzr: '~' in Version number violates policy 5.6.12

Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 12:18:18 +0300

severity normal
thanks

la, 2006-08-12 kello 10:41 +0200, Jakob Bohm kirjoitti:
> Policy section 5.6.12 lists the permitted characters in package
> version numbers, '~' is NOT on the list, and until less than 14
> days ago all packages in the archive were compliant with that
> rule.  I know for certain that one of my own mirroring scripts
> will refuse to accept '~' in package file names, and others
> might do the same.

This is changing, see
http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2006/08/msg00006.html and
replies on debian-devel and debian-policy. Tilde is now de facto
allowed, and policy is going to be updated soon. When things affected by
policy change, it is common for policy updates to lag a bit, since the
policy is supposed to document existing practice. Before there is
existing practice, a policy change is (often) premature.

-- 
It's 1978! Things should be round by now -- Michael Kelso (That 70's
show)

Message #15 received at 382612@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: martin f krafft <madduck@debian.org>

To: Lars Wirzenius <liw@liw.iki.fi>

Cc: Jakob Bohm <jbj@image.dk>, 382612@bugs.debian.org, control <control@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: Re: Bug#382612: bzr: '~' in Version number violates policy 5.6.12

Date: Sat, 12 Aug 2006 11:25:10 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

severity wishlist
reassign 382612 debian-policy
retitle 382612 please document ~ as allowable character in version numbers
thanks

No reason to leave this bug open on bzr...

-- 
Please do not send copies of list mail to me; I read the list!
 
 .''`.     martin f. krafft <madduck@debian.org>
: :'  :    proud Debian developer and author: http://debiansystem.info
`. `'`
  `-  Debian - when you have better things to do than fixing a system

[signature.asc (application/pgp-signature, inline)]

Message #26 received at 382612@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: 382612@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#382612: please document ~ as allowable character in version numbers

Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 13:13:46 -0700

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

retitle 382612 [PROPOSAL] Document ~ behavior in version numbers
thanks

Here is a proposed patch to Policy to document the use of ~ in version
numbers.  Please review, and if it looks accurate, please second.

[policy-patch (text/plain, inline)]

--- policy.sgml.orig	2006-06-19 22:20:13.000000000 -0700
+++ policy.sgml	2006-09-08 13:09:35.000000000 -0700
@@ -2649,8 +2649,8 @@
 			Alphanumerics are <tt>A-Za-z0-9</tt> only.
 	          </footnote>
 	          and the characters <tt>.</tt> <tt>+</tt> <tt>-</tt>
-	          <tt>:</tt> (full stop, plus, hyphen, colon) and should
-	          start with a digit.  If there is no
+	          <tt>:</tt> <tt>~</tt> (full stop, plus, hyphen, colon,
+	          tilde) and should start with a digit.  If there is no
 	          <var>debian_revision</var> then hyphens are not allowed;
 	          if there is no <var>epoch</var> then colons are not
 	          allowed.
@@ -2663,8 +2663,8 @@
 	          This part of the version number specifies the version of
 	          the Debian package based on the upstream version.  It
 	          may contain only alphanumerics and the characters
-	          <tt>+</tt> and <tt>.</tt> (plus and full stop) and is
-	          compared in the same way as the
+	          <tt>+</tt> <tt>.</tt> <tt>~</tt> (plus, full stop,
+	          tilde) and is compared in the same way as the
 	          <var>upstream_version</var> is.
 	        </p>
 
@@ -2713,7 +2713,10 @@
 	    which may be empty) are compared lexically.  If a difference
 	    is found it is returned.  The lexical comparison is a
 	    comparison of ASCII values modified so that all the letters
-	    sort earlier than all the non-letters.
+	    sort earlier than all the non-letters and so that a tilde
+	    sorts before anything, even the end of a part.  For example,
+	    the following parts are in sorted order: <tt>~~<tt>,
+	    <tt>~~a</tt>, <tt>~</tt>, the empty part, <tt>a</tt>.
 	  </p>
 
 	  <p>

[Message part 3 (text/plain, inline)]

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Message #33 received at 382612-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>

To: 382612-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#382612: fixed in debian-policy 3.7.2.2

Date: Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:02:08 -0700

Source: debian-policy
Source-Version: 3.7.2.2

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
debian-policy, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

debian-policy_3.7.2.2.dsc
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.2.2.dsc
debian-policy_3.7.2.2.tar.gz
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.2.2.tar.gz
debian-policy_3.7.2.2_all.deb
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.2.2_all.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 382612@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org> (supplier of updated debian-policy package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Mon,  2 Oct 2006 17:31:23 -0500
Source: debian-policy
Binary: debian-policy
Architecture: source all
Version: 3.7.2.2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Debian Policy List <debian-policy@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Manoj Srivastava <srivasta@debian.org>
Description: 
 debian-policy - Debian Policy Manual and related documents
Closes: 367531 367697 370471 373212 375508 375728 376104 376438 377215 378386 379630 379974 380692 382612 385935 386178 387027 388302
Changes: 
 debian-policy (3.7.2.2) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Bug fix: "clarify 12.3 Additional documentation", thanks to Peter
     Eisentraut                                               (Closes: #367697).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: s/dependcy/dependency/", thanks to Justin
     Pryzby                                                   (Closes: #375508).
   * Bug fix: "various spelling mistakes", thanks to Nico Golde
                                                              (Closes: #375728).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: typo", thanks to Peter Samuelson
                                                              (Closes: #376104).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: [PROPOSAL] maintainer scripts must not be
     world writable", thanks to Kari Pahula                   (Closes: #376438).
   * Bug fix: "policy-process: s/ a a / a /; s/peoples/people's/;
     s/intiated/initiated/; s/participattion the/participation in the/? add
     quotes; s/was a larger/a larger/?", thanks to Justin Pryzby
                                                              (Closes: #377215).
   * Bug fix: "[PROPOSAL] Include the GFDL in the set shipped in
     /usr/share/common-licenses", thanks to Adeodato Simó. However, it is
     premature to tell packages to use the common licenses file until we
     actually ship the license in /usr/share/common-licenses/ (Closes: #378386).
   * Bug fix: "circular dependencies, improved guarantees", thanks to Ian
     Jackson                                                  (Closes: #379630).
   * Bug fix: "section on invoke-rc.d doesn't make sense", thanks to Peter
     Eisentraut                                               (Closes: #380692).
   * Bug fix: "policy: postinst doesn't document typical abort-remove
     case", thanks to Justin Pryzby. Removed all such comments. This is not
     the place to document such material.                     (Closes: #373212).
   * Bug fix: "use of &quot;invoke-rc.d $PACKAGE stop || exit $?&quot; in
     prerm scripts", thanks to Lars Wirzenius                 (Closes: #370471).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: Inconsistent requirements wrt bashisms",
     thanks to Frank Küster                                   (Closes: #367531).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: s/with With/with /", thanks to Justin Pryzby
                                                              (Closes: #379974).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: "$RET" not "RET"", thanks to Justin Pryzby
                                                              (Closes: #386178).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: Spelling error in chapter 9.1.1:
     exceptiions", thanks to Andreas Janssen                  (Closes: #388302).
   * Bug fix: "[PROPOSAL] Document ~ behavior in version numbers", thanks
     to Jakob Bohm                                            (Closes: #382612).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: [ACCEPTED] Request for the 'stardict'",
     thanks to Andrew Lee                                     (Closes: #385935).
   * Bug fix: "[ACCEPTED] virtual package 'lzh-archiver' -- an LZH archiver
     package", thanks to Ying-Chun Liu (PaulLiu)              (Closes: #387027).
Files: 
 39a748a582fbbe457926cdb53d80932b 807 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.2.2.dsc
 6e55293a86589fc36e3bc330a654371e 642429 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.2.2.tar.gz
 a8bb5b6ee8044f805801ba4cad5d265a 1530338 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.2.2_all.deb

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Message #38 received at 382612@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: 382612@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#382612: [PROPOSAL] Document ~ behavior in version numbers

Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 10:51:39 -0700

This bug was closed in the 3.7.2.2 upload, but looking at the policy
document in 3.7.2.2, I can't find any reference to ~ being allowed in
version numbers.

Was it closed by mistake?  I'm hesitant to just reopen it in case I missed
something, but the issue doesn't seem to be resolved (and I would have
thought it would be a change warranting a minor version increase).

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>

Message #45 received at 382612@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Al Nikolov <alnikolov@narod.ru>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <382612@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: debian-policy: Still not fixed

Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 14:21:34 +0400

Package: debian-policy
Version: 3.7.2.2
Followup-For: Bug #382612

reopen 382612
thanks

Definitely, the proposed patch was not applied and the correspondent
changelog entry is wrong.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-4-686
Locale: LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=ru_RU.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

-- no debconf information

Message #56 received at 382612-close@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>

To: 382612-close@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Bug#382612: fixed in debian-policy 3.7.3.0

Date: Mon, 03 Dec 2007 07:17:02 +0000

Source: debian-policy
Source-Version: 3.7.3.0

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
debian-policy, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive:

debian-policy_3.7.3.0.dsc
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.3.0.dsc
debian-policy_3.7.3.0.tar.gz
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.3.0.tar.gz
debian-policy_3.7.3.0_all.deb
  to pool/main/d/debian-policy/debian-policy_3.7.3.0_all.deb



A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 382612@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org> (supplier of updated debian-policy package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@debian.org)


-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Format: 1.7
Date: Sun, 02 Dec 2007 22:33:55 -0800
Source: debian-policy
Binary: debian-policy
Architecture: source all
Version: 3.7.3.0
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: low
Maintainer: Debian Policy List <debian-policy@lists.debian.org>
Changed-By: Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>
Description: 
 debian-policy - Debian Policy Manual and related documents
Closes: 294962 361418 363133 382612 392594 402975 412634 413575 418444 420701 424212 431813 435207 440931 448035
Changes: 
 debian-policy (3.7.3.0) unstable; urgency=low
 .
   * Bug fix: "FTBFS if built twice in a row"                 (Closes: #424212).
   * Bug fix: "[PROPOSAL] Document ~ behavior in version numbers", thanks
     to Nicolas François and Marc Brockschmidt                (Closes: #382612).
   * Bug fix: "Please add 'local' to list of supra-POSIX features that
     /bin/sh can be expected to offer". Also add test -a/-o binary logical
     operators and change references from POSIX to SUSv3      (Closes: #294962).
   * Bug fix: "[Proposal] new Debian menu structure", thanks to Bill
     Allombert                                                (Closes: #361418).
   * Bug fix: "typo: "must not be not world-writable"", thanks to Sam
     Hocevar                                                  (Closes: #392594).
   * Bug fix: "debian-policy: recommend binary:Version substvar instead",
     thanks to Guillem Jover                                  (Closes: #418444).
   * Bug fix: "New virtual package: dictd-dictionary", thanks to Tatsuya
     Kinoshita                                                (Closes: #413575).
   * The virtual package in use is inet-superserver, not inetd-superserver.
     Adjust the virtual package list to match.  Thanks, Tatsuya Kinoshita
     and Marco d'Itri.
   * Wrapped, cleaned up trailing whitespace, and alphabetized the list of
     virtual packages.
   * Bug fix: "Small spelling errors and erratic sentences in debian-policy",
     thanks to Michiel de Boer.                               (Closes: #435207).
   * Bug fix: "Source field of .changes files may contain a version number"
                                                              (Closes: #431813).
   * Bug fix: "822-date is deprecated (use date -R instead)"  (Closes: #448035).
   * Bug fix: "5.6.17 (Urgency) should list emergency, maybe a normative
     list?"                                                   (Closes: #412634).
   * Bug fix: "[PROPOSAL] Document support of package types in shlibs
     files", thanks to Franz Pop and Raphaël Hertzog          (Closes: #363133).
   * Bug fix: "Introduce a requirement for internationalisation of debconf
     templates", thanks to Christian Perrier                  (Closes: #402975).
   * Bug fix: "GFDL is now in common-licenses".  Also add the rest of the
     specific license versions and the GPLv3                  (Closes: #420701).
   * Bug fix: "Virtual package for Japanese font packages
     (ttf-japanese-mincho and ttf-japanese-gothic)", thanks to Nobuhiro
     Iwamatsu                                                 (Closes: #440931).
   * Drop unsupported docbook-xml format from the doc-base file for the
     debconf specification.
   * Remove inactive uploaders and add Russ Allbery.
   * Update Standards-Version to 3.7.3 (no changes required).
Files: 
 483848c51ce80749d34a6a83f07dc48e 765 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.3.0.dsc
 e8b9c137483d3441fbb8fd0e9078f475 643340 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.3.0.tar.gz
 6ada9e31cf531c7ec52e7f4fe974c924 1509794 doc optional debian-policy_3.7.3.0_all.deb

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