Bug#629319: Version number is not allowing more recent versions to be downloaded

[Michael Rutter]

Thank you for quick response.

Since I am using Launchpad, I only have access to the Ubunutu packages 
in the build system. r-cran-vcd carries over using the epoch in the 
version number, so the problem will persist unless I add the epoch to 
the new Ubuntu package as well.

I became aware of this quirk in numbering when a package failed to build 
that required r-cran-vcd.  A second bug is that r-cran-vcd is missing 
some depends.  Looking at the archive in CRAN, the depends for vcd are:

MASS, grid, colorspace

r-cran-vcd only has r-base-core as a depends.  The build system failed 
to load MASS, which is needed by VCD, therefore failing.

Should I file a second bug?

Thanks,
Michael

On 06/05/2011 04:53 PM, Andreas Tille wrote:
> Hi,
>
> this is not a problem of the Debian package, but (most probably - I have
> not checked) a problem of the Ubuntu package (or your Build system
> including a Debian mirror).  The epoch (1:) was needed because of using
> a different versioning scheme in the past.  To make sure the newer
> versions become a higher version than the older upstream versions it was
> necessary (and the only solution) to add the epoch.  If you drop the
> epoch in the Ubuntu packaged version this will be regarded as lower than
> the Debian package.  Alternatively you should drop the Debian mirrors
> from your Build system and if there are no packages featuring the epoch
> everything should be fine.
>
> I could close this bug report immediately but I leave it as a remainder
> for upgrading the package (and a Debian upgrade to latest upstream will
> fix / work around your problem as well even if this is not the proper
> fix in your situation as I tried to explain and will fail again if
> Ubuntu tries to package a more recent version than Debian.
>
> Kind regards
>
>        Andreas.
>
>
> On Sun, Jun 05, 2011 at 11:29:22AM -0400, Michael Rutter wrote:
>> Package: r-cran-vcd
>> Version: 1:1.2-9-1
>>
>> I am building a package in Launchpad for Ubuntu called "r-cran-pscl",
>> which requires r-cran-vcd. I have built a more recent version of
>> r-cran-vcd (1.2-11) which is available in the PPA, but when r-cran-pscl
>> is being built, it grabs the older version.
>>
>> Get:104 http://ftpmaster.internal/ubuntu/ natty/universe r-cran-vcd all
>> 1:1.2-9-1 [1386 kB]
>>
>> The older version is missing a dependency, which causes the build to
>> fail. However, the build machine cannot grab the correct, newer version
>> (r-cran-vcd_1.2-11-1cran1natty0_all.deb). I believe this is caused by
>> the "1:" as a prefix to the version number.
>>
>> I am using Ubunutu 11.04
>>
>>
>>
>> --
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>> debian-science-maintainers at lists.alioth.debian.org
>> http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/debian-science-maintainers
>>
>