>> Funny thing is, this is what the versioning says on those pages: >> Package: libmpfr4 (3.1.6-1) >> Package: libmpfr6 (4.0.1-1) >> >> ...ok, that's strange. Even weirder, they are both built from the same >> sources: mpfr-4.0.1-1.
Indeed, I find that odd. I suspect that the "3.1.6-1" in the "title" and the "4.0.1-1" in the "download from source" refer to different versions of the package (normally, those two are identical). Not sure how/why this happens. Maybe the source package has been upgraded, but the build of the corresponding binaries is still in-progress? >> I feel like I'm missing something. For example, what does the >> "3.1.6-1" mean in libmpfr4? Usually it means "built from the upstream version 3.1.6 with some local patches" and the "-1" is a Debian-local sub-version, in case Debian builds several different versions of the package from the same upstream versions (e.g. because Debian's own patches are modified, a typical example being when Debian's security team backports a security patch to 3.1.6). > The numbers in parentheses are the Debian versions of the package. > That's how apt would upgrade a package if a bug was fixed within it. > They're not related to the upstream version. Doesn't explain why one says "Package: libmpfr4 (3.1.6-1)" and the other says "[mpfr4_4.0.1-1.dsc]": both "3.1.6-1" and "4.0.1-1" are Debian version numbers and they are usually the same. > As for the "6", I'm guessing that they chose that because the library > version (yes, another versioning sequence) is 6.0.1 as opposed to 4.1.5. That's right, this is an "API version", so I guess it means that the 4.0.1 upstream code can be used to build both the API version 4 and the API version 6. Stefan