ubuntu-manual team mailing list archive

[Patrick Dickey <pdickeybeta@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Tony, and everyone else,

I'm going to snip most of the quote to get to the heart of what I'm
replying to.


>         
>         Finally, a third command I'm considering: the \version
>         command. This
>         command is metadata that the authors and editors add so we can
>         track
>         which version of a package/application has been documented:
>         
>             \version{firefox}{20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3}
>         
>         The first argument is the Ubuntu package name (the same name
>         used with
>         apt-get). The second argument is the package version.
>         
>         We could run a script to compare the versions documented with
>         the
>         latest versions to see which packages have changed. Then have
>         an idea
>         of which ChangeLogs we should read to see what changes have
>         been made.
>         There should only be one \version command per package per
>         section/chapter. When you've updated the documentation to
>         refer to the
>         newer version of the package, change the version number in the
>         \version command.
>         
>         Let me know what you think of these new commands. Do you think
>         they
>         will be helpful or will they just get in the way?  I'll work
>         on
>         finishing up my status dashboard soon so we can see a status
>         page on
>         our website and get an overview of our manuals.  The status
>         page will
>         also include the status of screenshots and translations.
>         
>         —Kevin Godby
>         
>         
>         
> Look good.  Just two observations:
> 
> 1. How is the 'approval' given to move from 'candidate' to 'final'?
> Who by?
> 
> 2. \version will be difficult for me.  I have trouble working what
> package is the appropriate one, let alone finding out full package
> names 
> 
> 
> Tony

You can find the version by typing this command in a terminal:

dpkg -l | grep <programname>

For example, dpkg -l | grep firefox gives me these results (in 12.10)

dpkg -l | grep firefox
ii  firefox                               20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3
amd64        Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla
ii  firefox-globalmenu                    20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3
amd64        Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla - Unity menubar
integration
ii  firefox-locale-en                     20.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.10.3
amd64        English language pack for Firefox

The "ii" means that it's installed properly. the name is the name that
matches (even if only one word matches), the build is the version, the
amd64 in my case means that it's a 64-bit application, and then the
"Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla" is the description.

So, you don't need to know the exact name from apt-get, just an idea of
what it is.

Hope this helps.:)
Patrick.