[Xapian-discuss] What is the significance of 22 in the Debian libxapian22 packages

[Olly Betts]

On Tue, Apr 30, 2013 at 09:24:06AM +0530, Charles wrote:
> What is the significance of 22 in the Debian libxapian22 and
> libxapian22-dbg packages?  According to
> http://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=libxapian22 they are built
> from upstream versions 1.2.3 to 1.2.12 (of xapian-core?)

It's the "soversion" - essentially it's an indicator of ABI
compatibility, and has no direct connection with the version
number:

http://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-sharedlibs.html

> The reason for asking is that we need xapian-omega (and hence
> xapian-core) at 1.2.8 or later.  Previously we have built and installed
> directly from source but a package would be more convenient.  So I am
> studying the existing Debian packages for guidance while creating 1.2.15
> packages..

You should just be able to rebuild the newer packages for squeeze -
I backported 1.2.7 and I don't think it needed any special changes:

http://packages.debian.org/source/stable-backports/xapian-omega

Backporting a newer version is on my todo list, but I'm rather busy
so I'm not sure when I'll get to it.  You might find this script which
mostly automates the process handy (change MIRROR near the top, unless
you also live in NZ):

http://trac.xapian.org/browser/trunk/xapian-maintainer-tools/debian/backport-source-packages

Cheers,
    Olly