> The fact that /usr/share/doc/ has every single package installed listed in it, and they don't include the installed version number in the directory names, as RH still does, means that you can use that directory to recover or rebuild from various packaging failures.
Why wouldn't you want the version numbers? That seems like something you would want when trying to rebuild a package database. Also, what do you do if you have two versions of something installed ?
Re:What makes us Red Hat
by dredmorbius on Friday April 07, 2017 @07:04PM
(#14064124)
1. Generally you rebuild to the latest available versions of yor specified release. APT sorts version deps as it does package deps, so you don't have to.
2. You can reference content under /usr/share/doc/ without having to specify a goddamned version number that a) changes arbitrarily and b) is inconsistently specified every fucking time.
Version numbers are metadata, not directory name elements.
Changelogs, also required, give you the info if you desperately neeed it.
The software tools and packaging formats exist only to implement that. It's Policy and the comprehensiveness of the Debian archive (60k+ packages last time I checked, a year or so back), which make it bliss. You simply rarely have to go outside it, and you can configure a system as lean or rich, or anywhere in between, as you like.
What Policy states is that the package maintainer (not the user) must or must not do, including incorporating specified, requiring manpages (though that's not a release-critical bug), so that documentation is standardised. The fact that /usr/share/doc/ has every single package installed listed in it, and they don't include the installed version number in the directory names, as RH still does, means that you can use that directory to recover or rebuild from various packaging failures. (Why would you want to do that you ask? Same reason you'd want to have a doctor or hospital nearby if you had a broken leg -- it's not so much what you'd planned on, but it's damned convenient when you find yourself in that situation.)
Joey Hess and Martin Krafft (see the latter's The Debian System) both expanded on more elements of Debian packaging vs. other systems, particularly Red Hat / RPM.
http://www.worldcat.org/title/debian-system/oclc/640083534&r...