couple more questions about sqlite

[John Salerno]

Joel Rosdahl wrote:
> John Salerno <johnjsal at NOSPAMgmail.com> writes:
> 
>> What is really confusing is that I did a search for 'sqlite' in my
>> Ubuntu repositories and it came up with entries like this:
>>
>> python2.4-pysqlite1.1   python interface to SQLite 3
>> python2.4-pysqlite2     python interface to SQLite 3
>> python2.4-pysqlite      python interface to SQLite 2
> 
> That's python2.4-sqlite, not python2.4-pysqlite. The reason for both
> having pythonX.Y-foo and python-foo packages is Debian's (and
> therefore Ubuntu's) Python package policy.
> 
>> python-pysqlite1.1      python interface to SQLite 3
>> python-pysqlite2        python interface to SQLite 3
>> python-sqlite           python interface to SQlite 2
>>
>> Needless to say, the numbering had me banging my head against my
>> desk.
> 
> Sorry to hear that, and I can understand that the names are a bit
> confusing.
> 
> Here's the story behind the mess:
> 
> In the beginning (well, at least in 2003 when I found out about
> SQLite), SQLite was up to version 2.something and the Python module
> was called sqlite.py. While the Python module *project* was called
> pysqlite 0.something, Debian modules were generally called python-foo
> when providing the module foo; hence the name python-sqlite.
> 
> Then, SQLite 3 was released (incompatible with SQLite 2 databases),
> and pysqlite 1.1 was released with the same module name (sqlite.py)
> and API as the old sqlite.py module but linked against SQLite 3. I
> decided not to package that version but instead wait for pysqlite 2, a
> rewritten and improved version linked against SQLite 3 and with a new
> Python API.
> 
> pysqlite 2 was released and the Python module was called
> pysqlite2.dbapi2. I didn't think python-sqlite3 would be a good name
> for the Debian package since there were actually two different
> pysqlite versions (both actively maintained) linked against SQLite3,
> so I ended up calling the package python-pysqlite2, following the name
> and version of the pysqlite project instead of the module.
> 
> Finally, by request of Debian users, I also packaged the other
> pysqlite version linked against SQLite 3 giving the package
> python-pysqlite1.1.
> 
> Oh, and then there's python-apsw too. :-)
> 
> Regards,
> Joel (maintainer of Debian's Python-related sqlite packages)
> 

Yikes! Well at least it gets simpler when 2.5 is released with the 
module built-in! :)