Groups > linux.debian.user > #197244

Re: Debian testing - release number

From	Joe <joe@jretrading.com>
Newsgroups	linux.debian.user
Subject	Re: Debian testing - release number
Date	2018-07-05 22:40 +0200
Message-ID	<w8jcJ-2jF-11@gated-at.bofh.it> (permalink)
References	(7 earlier) <w8eZr-8k6-1@gated-at.bofh.it> <w8fCa-5s-7@gated-at.bofh.it> <w8gHU-JD-9@gated-at.bofh.it> <w8gRA-12l-5@gated-at.bofh.it> <w8iA1-1Rx-5@gated-at.bofh.it>
Organization	JRE Trading Ltd

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On Thu, 5 Jul 2018 14:57:03 -0500
Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> wrote:

> I am rightly accused of relying too heavily on /etc/debian_version to
> detect my running release. But it seems clear
> to me that the "right", canonical way to detect this is to query the
> installed package base to extract a version/release
> number from a package name and/or version. So surely there is an
> "approved" tool for doing that. Hopefully OTHER THAN
> apt, aptitude, synaptic or apt-get; ideally simpler and easier to
> script than that.

I would expect dpkg to be a better bet than apt, as it's more primitive.
Manually, I use dpkg -l with a grep to find version numbers.

But it's odd that you're the first to point out (indirectly) that
knowing the version of Debian isn't that useful. This is *Debian*.
Quite a few users will have at least one backport or locally-compiled
package, and there will be a few people who have almost tamed a
frankendebian.

If your application depends on a particular version of a *package*,
then it makes sense to enquire which version of that package is
installed, not which version of Debian is running.

-- 
Joe

Thread

Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-06-28 06:50 +0200
  Re: Debian testing - release number Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2018-07-01 12:50 +0200
    Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-01 19:40 +0200
      Re: Debian testing - release number John Crawley <john@bunsenlabs.org> - 2018-07-04 03:00 +0200
        Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-04 17:20 +0200
          Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-05 14:20 +0200
      Re: Debian testing - release number Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2018-07-04 03:20 +0200
        Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-04 18:00 +0200
          Re: Debian testing - release number Richard Hector <richard@walnut.gen.nz> - 2018-07-05 03:00 +0200
            Re: Debian testing - release number John Crawley <john@bunsenlabs.org> - 2018-07-05 04:20 +0200
            Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-05 12:20 +0200
              Re: Debian testing - release number Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2018-07-05 13:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-05 13:50 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-05 18:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-05 18:50 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-05 20:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-05 20:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-07-05 22:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-05 22:20 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-07-05 22:30 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-05 22:50 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Nicholas Geovanis <nickgeovanis@gmail.com> - 2018-07-05 23:40 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-06 02:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number The Wanderer <wanderer@fastmail.fm> - 2018-07-06 19:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-06 20:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Joe <joe@jretrading.com> - 2018-07-05 22:40 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-06 02:20 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-06 10:50 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-06 14:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-06 15:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number davidson <davidson@freevolt.org> - 2018-07-07 06:10 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-07 10:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Greg Wooledge <wooledg@eeg.ccf.org> - 2018-07-09 15:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-09 17:30 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-10 23:30 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2018-07-11 14:00 +0200
                Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-13 21:20 +0200
            Re: Debian testing - release number David Wright <deblis@lionunicorn.co.uk> - 2018-07-05 16:50 +0200

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