Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages

From	Borden <borden_c@tutanota.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages
Date	2025-07-03 10:40 +0200
Message-ID	<L4nE6-eUrn-3@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
Organization	linux.* mail to news gateway

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On a few  projects, I've discovered how ancient some software is (like, last commit more than  15 years ago ancient). Unless I missed something, `apt-cache show` doesn't show the upstream release date.

Naively, it seems feasible to add such a field, which front-ends like Synaptic can also display.

Yes, I can click through https://packages.debian.org/ to find the link to the upstream code base and then pick through whatever interface the repo has to find out when they released whatever software version I'm using. But Debian could also include it.

I think the usefulness of this feature  is self-evident, especially when deciding which package from several options to install. Version numbers don't really tell much, unless they use increasingly fashionable date versioning. If two packages, superficially, do  the same thing, I'll probably want the newer  package. Alternatively, if I'm trying to stick to the most heavily tested software, I'll probably want an older package. If I want a package that supports technology that came out  10 years ago, using 15-year-old software probably isn't going to cut it.

Aside from the "If you want it so much, you implement it and submit a PR," objections, what do people think of this?

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Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages Borden <borden_c@tutanota.com> - 2025-07-03 10:40 +0200
  Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2025-07-03 15:10 +0200
    Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages Gregory Seidman <gsslist+debian@anthropohedron.net> - 2025-07-03 16:20 +0200
    Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages Borden <borden_c@tutanota.com> - 2025-07-04 06:20 +0200
  Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2025-07-03 16:40 +0200
  Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages "Jonathan Dowland" <jmtd@debian.org> - 2025-07-03 19:00 +0200
    Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2025-07-03 19:40 +0200
      Re: Feature idea: show upstream release dates on packages "Jonathan Dowland" <jmtd@debian.org> - 2025-07-04 22:40 +0200

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