I've patched a package and rebuilt it as documented on

http://www.debian.org/doc/FAQ/ch-pkg_basics.en.html#s-sourcebuild

i.e. with "dch -l local ..." before the build itself. But dpkg regards
the local package as older than the official package:

$ dpkg --compare-versions '1.2.3-2+b1' le '1.2.3-2local1'
zsh: exit 1     dpkg --compare-versions '1.2.3-2+b1' le '1.2.3-2local1'

and both apt-get and aptitude want to upgrade the local version.

Either the sorting algorithm should be fixed or the FAQ should
describe a way so that local versions still have the precedence
over binary-only updates based on the same version.

reassign 594908 debian-faq
quit

Hi FAQ maintainers,

[reordered for convenience]
Vincent Lefevre wrote:

That is as designed, and as described in policy.

The relevant text is:

	Then create a dedicated version of your own build (so
	that you won't get confused later when Debian itself
	releases a new version)

		dch -l local 'Blah blah blah'

Surely something like "-l +local" would make more sense.

Thoughts?

Hi Vincent, Jonathan e.a.,

Thanks for your bugreport and contribution to the discussion!

Jonathan wrote:
'dpkg -i' refuses to upgrade from 1.2.3-2+b1 to my freshly built local version
1.2.3-2local1"?

And why did you end up with a version 1.2.3-2local1?  Running "dch -l local
'Blah blah blah'" as indicated in the FAQ would have given you a version
1.2.3-2+b1local, afaik...

If I understand things correctly, we're looking for a version which is higher
than the current one, and guaranteed lower than any next version to get
released in the Debian archive.

https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/debian-packaging.html#id-1.18.4.4
agrees "dch -l local 'Blah blah blah'" is OK.  And it looks pretty robust to
me:

% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3-2+b1 le 1.2.3-2+b1local && echo ok
ok

% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3-2+b1local le 1.2.3-2+b2 && echo ok
ok

% dpkg --compare-versions 1.2.3-2+b1local le 1.2.3-2+b1.1 && echo ok
ok

I think there's no bug in the current FAQ here...

Or am I missing some very special meaning of "+" in version comparisons?  (Hrm,
it seems not: 'The "~" character always sort lower than anything else. Digits
sort lower than non-digits. Among remaining characters alphabetic characters
(A-Z, a-z) sort lower than the other ones.' says Dpkg::Version(3).)

Unless someone proves me wrong soonish, I'll close this bug.

Thanks, Bye,

Joost