bug#19219: New command-line syntax for package + version?

[Efraim Flashner]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015 20:16:31 -0500
Leo Famulari <address@hidden> wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 30, 2015 at 11:45:14PM +0100, Mathieu Lirzin wrote:
>  [...]  
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> > 
> > I'm OK with that.  Since choosing the reserved characters is not a
> > technical decision, maybe we could poll users?  
> 
> I think we should poll a big list of packages and see which characters
> are most safe to use.
> 
> The question is: which big list? Debian's?
> 
> 
 
When debian adopted multiarch they had a small internal fight about what 
characters to use, since there are only so many usable characters. IIRC, a long 
version of a debian package could be 1:6.3.2-1+bpo1~henry. I don't remember if 
their sorting takes into account ascii order or their own internal order, but 
I'm pretty sure they only allow using each character once.

http://www.fifi.org/doc/debian-policy/policy.html/ch-versions.html
https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/first.en.html#namever
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-controlfields.html#s-f-Version

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