[ruby-core:21601] Ruby 1.9 versioning scheme and packaging

Hi,

I'm one of the maintainers of the Debian package (and, consequently, of
the Ubuntu package) for Ruby, and I have some questions about your
current and future versioning scheme for Ruby 1.9.

With Ruby 1.8, we only used the first two digits (i.e 1.8, not 1.8.7 or
1.8.7.72) to version the core and standard library, as well as the
binary interface presented to programs using ruby throught
/usr/lib/libruby1.8.so.X.

I've heard the following about Ruby 1.9, please correct me if wrong:
  With Ruby 1.9, we are supposed to use three digits (1.9.1, not just
  1.9 or 1.9.1.3) to version the core and std libs. (Which are
  installed in /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1, not /usr/lib/ruby/1.9). Our
  problem is that, when 1.9.1 replaces 1.9.0, we need to transition
  all third party libraries so that they put their files in
  /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1 instead of /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.0.

  To make things worse, the API version (the name of the
  /usr/lib/ruby/#{APIVERSION} directory) is not related to the "ruby
  source version". For example, you could release Ruby 1.9.2, but, if
  the core and std libs are considered compatible, keep the files
  installed in /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.1.
  Or release 1.9.1.3, but change the API, and put the files in
  /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.2.
  And the same problem exists with the soname of the shared library.

Is that true?

Or can we make the following assumption:
   For a given Ruby version 1.9.a.b, the core/standard libs will be
   installed in /usr/lib/ruby/1.9.a, and the shared library will be
   named /usr/lib/libruby1.9.a.so.1.9.a. (or
   /usr/lib/libruby1.9.a.so.1.9.a, depending on the binary suffix)

That would really help packaging of Ruby ... :-)

Provided that the above assumption is true, we are inclined to package
ruby 1.9.1 in a "ruby1.9.1" package, which would allow several ruby1.9
version to coexist (for example, ruby1.9.1 and ruby1.9.2).
However, since that will require a transition each time a new ruby
version is released (when going from ruby1.9.a to ruby1.9.(a+1)), it
would be great for us if this didn't happen too frequently (that is, if
most of the development was done via point releases, ie ruby1.9.a.b,
ruby.1.9.a.c, ...).
Do you already have a rough idea of when ruby 1.9.2 will be released?

Thank you,
-- 
| Lucas Nussbaum
| [e-mail]   http://www.lucas-nussbaum.net/ |
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