debian packages version convention
- by JackWu
I'm using debian/Ubuntu, and get confused about versions of packages.
When using dpkg -l command, I get:
ii vim 2:7.3.429-2ubuntu2.1 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor
ii vim-common 2:7.3.429-2ubuntu2.1 Vi IMproved - Common files
ii vim-runtime 2:7.3.429-2ubuntu2.1 Vi IMproved - Runtime files
ii vim-tiny 2:7.3.429-2ubuntu2.1 Vi IMproved - enhanced vi editor - compact version
ii virt-what 1.11-1 detect if we are running in a virtual machine
ii w3m 0.5.3-5ubuntu1 WWW browsable pager with excellent tables/frames support
ii watershed 6 reduce superfluous executions of idempotent command
ii wget 1.13.4-2ubuntu1 retrieves files from the web
ii whiptail 0.52.11-2ubuntu10 Displays user-friendly dialog boxes from shell scripts
ii whoopsie 0.1.33 Ubuntu crash database submission daemon
ii wimlib9 1.5.0-1~webupd8~precise Library to extract, create, modify, and mount WIM files
ii wimtools 1.5.0-1~webupd8~precise Tools to extract, create, modify, and mount WIM files
ii wireless-tools 30~pre9-5ubuntu2 Tools for manipulating Linux Wireless Extensions
ii wpasupplicant 0.7.3-6ubuntu2.1 client support for WPA and WPA2 (IEEE 802.11i)
ii x11-common 1:7.6+12ubuntu2 X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
ii x11-utils 7.6+4ubuntu0.1 X11 utilities
ii xauth 1:1.0.6-1 X authentication utility
ii xbitmaps 1.1.1-1 Base X bitmaps
ii xclip 0.12-1 command line interface to X selections
ii xfonts-encodings 1:1.0.4-1ubuntu1 Encodings for X.Org fonts
ii xfonts-utils 1:7.6+1 X Window System font utility programs
ii xkb-data 2.5-1ubuntu1.3 X Keyboard Extension (XKB) configuration data
ii xml-core 0.13 XML infrastructure and XML catalog file support
rc xpdf 3.02-21build1 Portable Document Format (PDF) reader
ii xterm 271-1ubuntu2.1 X terminal emulator
ii xz-lzma 5.1.1alpha+20110809-3 XZ-format compression utilities - compatibility commands
ii xz-utils 5.1.1alpha+20110809-3 XZ-format compression utilities
ii zabbix-agent 1:1.8.11-1 network monitoring solution - agent
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3ubuntu4 compression library - runtime
ii zlib1g-dev 1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3ubuntu4 compression library - development
ii zsh 4.3.17-1ubuntu1 shell with lots of features
The third column is version, but it all messed up in a way I can't understand. I mean, different packages use total different naming specification.
Here are the major questions:
Why there are ubuntu in them, and there are not?
what all the special -~+ mean?
alpha and build, dfsg, what are they? Can I just use them casually?
vim and other packages have 2:, what does that mean?
How version comparison works, since they can be so different?
Can anyone please explain this to me? Or where can I find an official document?
Thanks in advance.
