Bug#1135785: Suggest starting date-based version numbers with 0.x

Ian Jackson <[email protected]> Tue, 5 May 2026 22:07:34 +0100
Newsgroups gmane.linux.debian.devel.policy
Message-ID <27130.23574.241595.307401__43247.700766527$1778015367$gmane$org@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Package: debian-policy
Tags: patch

I think this is probably not controversial, and since I've written
"consider" I hope it can be accepted without too much formality.

Ian.
0001-Suggest-starting-date-based-version-numbers-with-0.x.patch (text/plain, 893 B)
>From fdd0987d5b69bd2613d1b7d9204c56056c740bcd Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Ian Jackson <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 5 May 2026 22:05:15 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] Suggest starting date-based version numbers with 0.x

---
 policy.sgml | 8 ++++++++
 1 file changed, 8 insertions(+)

diff --git a/policy.sgml b/policy.sgml
index 5760a3f..2d7a896 100644
--- a/policy.sgml
+++ b/policy.sgml
@@ -974,6 +974,14 @@ zope.
 	    components.
 	  </p>
 
+	  <p>
+	    When upstream doesn't make numbered releases,
+	    consider starting the upstream part of the version number
+	    (as used in the Debian) with <tt>0.x</tt>.
+	    That way if upstream start making conventional releases,
+	    an epoch won't be necessary.
+	  </p>
+
 	  <p>
 	    Native Debian packages (i.e., packages which have been written
 	    especially for Debian) whose version numbers include dates
-- 
2.47.3