Arch Linux

heidegger

Member

Registered: 2013-04-24

Posts: 100

[SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

I believe that there is a requirement that the version of these two packages must match for ZFS to function properly.
They often change versions together although one occasionally lags behind, being updated days or weeks later.
Currently, they both changed versions from 2.2.7 to 2.3.0 at the same time on 2025-01-14.
This new release has a fantastic new feature which I wish to utilize immediately.

However, the minor version (distro patch?) of these two packages are different:
aur/zfs-dkms      2.2.7-1  -> 2.3.0-2
aur/zfs-utils     2.2.7-1  -> 2.3.0-1

I've always assumed that the appended -n was also required to match.
However, I don't know that to be true.

Can anyone share insight into the importance of the appended -n in the above package versions?

Thank you,
H.

Last edited by heidegger (2025-01-25 18:07:57)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 24,119

Re: [SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

the -n is the pkgrel, so a rebuild of the package with (normally) the  same underlying source code, either due to a change in the PKGBUILD or a rebuild (e.g. non-dkms kernel modules will have high pkgrel numbers since they need rebuilding with every new kernel) https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/PKGBUILD#pkgrel

So yes, this should normally not have an effect on the actual software's compatibility, and is an indicator of a distro (Arch) specific version bump.

heidegger

Member

Registered: 2013-04-24

Posts: 100

Re: [SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

Thank you for your answer and the clarification in terminology... pkgrel!

tekstryder

Member

Registered: 2013-02-14

Posts: 221

Re: [SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

You can also examine a package's changelog to see why it was modified or rebuilt and the pkgrel bumped.

In this case is was a small build-related patch.

heidegger

Member

Registered: 2013-04-24

Posts: 100

Re: [SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

Excellent! The changelog had the answer all along.
It almost seems obvious now.

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,338

Re: [SOLVED] Minor Version difference with zfs-dkms & zfs-utils

although the aur version pretty much just links back to github you may have a look at its upstream source https://github.com/archzfs/archzfs as this minor patch seems some out of tree own modification not commibg from archzfs base