Hi! Additional information from Debian 9/stretch.
acerion@debian:~$ grep CODENAME /etc/os-release VERSION_CODENAME=stretch acerion@debian:~$ apt --version apt 1.4.11 (amd64) A. Reproduction with mongodb-dev acerion@debian:~$ apt-get source mongodb-dev=2:1.1.2-5 Reading package lists... Done Picking 'mongo-cxx-driver-legacy' as source package instead of 'mongodb-dev' NOTICE: 'mongo-cxx-driver-legacy' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at: https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git -b debian Please use: git clone https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git -b debian to retrieve the latest (possibly unreleased) updates to the package. Need to get 1,600 kB of source archives. Get:1 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (dsc) [2,502 B] Get:2 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (tar) [1,578 kB] Get:3 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (diff) [19.8 kB] Fetched 1,600 kB in 0s (3,108 kB/s) dpkg-source: info: extracting mongo-cxx-driver-legacy in mongo-cxx-driver-legacy-1.1.2 [...] acerion@debian:~$ acerion@debian:~$ rm -rf mongo-cxx-driver-legacy* acerion@debian:~$ acerion@debian:~$ apt-get source mongodb-dev=1.1.2-5 Reading package lists... Done Picking 'mongo-cxx-driver-legacy' as source package instead of 'mongodb-dev' NOTICE: 'mongo-cxx-driver-legacy' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at: https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git -b debian Please use: git clone https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git -b debian to retrieve the latest (possibly unreleased) updates to the package. Need to get 1,600 kB of source archives. Get:1 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (dsc) [2,502 B] Get:2 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (tar) [1,578 kB] Get:3 http://archive.debian.org/debian stretch/main mongo-cxx-driver-legacy 1.1.2-5 (diff) [19.8 kB] Fetched 1,600 kB in 0s (3,022 kB/s) dpkg-source: info: extracting mongo-cxx-driver-legacy in mongo-cxx-driver-legacy-1.1.2 [...] acerion@debian:~$ apt-cache show mongodb-dev Package: mongodb-dev Source: mongo-cxx-driver-legacy (1.1.2-5) Version: 2:1.1.2-5 Installed-Size: 52 Maintainer: Debian MongoDB Maintainers <pkg-mongodb-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org> Architecture: all Depends: libmongoclient-dev Description-en: MongoDB C++ Driver (transitional package) This is a transitional dummy package and can be safely removed. Description-md5: be37fe697b6918d0a3d27af8da4cff89 Homepage: https://mongodb.github.io/mongo-cxx-driver/ Tag: devel::library, role::devel-lib Section: libdevel Priority: optional Filename: pool/main/m/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy/mongodb-dev_1.1.2-5_all.deb Size: 15852 MD5sum: 7debc7bbe9bf43a97b6fbeac9ae1f93c SHA256: f359d5ca0d0652cc773fc83803830cc43546d68a1d6251262e84a548a791b4a1 acerion@debian:~$ apt-cache showsrc mongodb-dev Package: mongo-cxx-driver-legacy Binary: libmongoclient-dev, libmongoclient0, mongodb-dev Version: 1.1.2-5 Maintainer: Debian MongoDB Maintainers <pkg-mongodb-maintain...@lists.alioth.debian.org> Uploaders: Giulio Paci <giuliop...@gmail.com>, Apollon Oikonomopoulos <apoi...@debian.org>, Laszlo Boszormenyi (GCS) <g...@debian.org> Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 9), devscripts, dh-buildinfo, dh-exec, libboost-dev, libboost-thread-dev, libgtest-dev, libjsoncpp-dev, libsasl2-dev, libssl-dev, tzdata, scons (>= 2.3.0) Architecture: any all Standards-Version: 3.9.8 Format: 3.0 (quilt) Files: 67693c7bcc4af65b6b680cfbe8404b40 2502 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2-5.dsc 4c23a21360c4f8a2dbd71ffcfd46da3a 1577527 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2.orig.tar.gz a3cd2af866b3442fd2b45df03349124e 19820 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2-5.debian.tar.xz Vcs-Browser: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git Vcs-Git: https://anonscm.debian.org/git/pkg-mongodb/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy.git -b debian Checksums-Sha256: 77b556271badcdae4a9c1477201738e95d7036c6af417bfd0fb5480e9fb59ac5 2502 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2-5.dsc 8c52cae798086c3e9d0e6fe488c3378601db858cc71944b6b83440d8b00298f4 1577527 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2.orig.tar.gz 18fb2538e238bd7a400ee1ec243712824fafed83cafc15f499180e076268fe96 19820 mongo-cxx-driver-legacy_1.1.2-5.debian.tar.xz Homepage: https://mongodb.github.io/mongo-cxx-driver/ Package-List: libmongoclient-dev deb libdevel optional arch=any libmongoclient0 deb devel optional arch=any mongodb-dev deb oldlibs extra arch=all Directory: pool/main/m/mongo-cxx-driver-legacy Priority: extra Section: misc One thing that caught my eye here is that binary package's version includes epoch, whereas source package's version doesn't include epoch. Perhaps this is why "apt-get source" is able to fetch source of mongodb-dev in both cases. B. Reproduction with vim package, which uses epoch in version string too acerion@debian:~$ apt-get source vim=2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 Reading package lists... Done NOTICE: 'vim' packaging is maintained in the 'Git' version control system at: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-vim/vim.git/ Please use: git clone https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-vim/vim.git/ to retrieve the latest (possibly unreleased) updates to the package. Need to get 13.2 MB of source archives. Get:1 http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/main vim 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 (dsc) [3,040 B] Get:2 http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/main vim 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 (tar) [13.0 MB] Get:3 http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates/main vim 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 (diff) [191 kB] Fetched 13.2 MB in 3s (4,274 kB/s) dpkg-source: info: extracting vim in vim-8.0.0197 [...] acerion@debian:~$ acerion@debian:~$ rm -rf vim* acerion@debian:~$ acerion@debian:~$ apt-get source vim=8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 Reading package lists... Done E: Can not find version '8.0.0197-4+deb9u7' of package 'vim' E: Unable to find a source package for vim acerion@debian:~$ apt-cache show vim Package: vim Version: 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 [...] Package: vim Version: 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u3 [...] acerion@debian:~$ apt-cache showsrc vim Package: vim Binary: vim-common, vim-gui-common, vim-runtime, vim-doc, vim-tiny, vim, vim-gtk, vim-gtk3, vim-nox, vim-athena, vim-gnome, xxd Version: 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u3 [...] Package: vim Binary: vim-common, vim-gui-common, vim-runtime, vim-doc, vim-tiny, vim, vim-gtk, vim-gtk3, vim-nox, vim-athena, vim-gnome, xxd Version: 2:8.0.0197-4+deb9u7 [...] As you can see, both binary and source packages include epoch in version string, and apt-get source is unable to find a package when queried for version without epoch. I don't know what is the correct behaviour of apt when dealing with epoch numbers, but maybe the source of problem is the inconsistency in mongodb's version strings. Kamil
