Usually, package version is more or less related to the underlying library version AND/OR library ABI. So some careful releaser will prefix their package with the major version number of the library, so as one day, somebody can install libleveldb1
and libleveldb2
alongside on the same server (and have program that use any of the two version without issue).
-dev
and -dbg
packages are also usually used by developers who know what they do, so removing the extra version name at the end of the package is ok. At least, until there is a version 2 of liblevel
which will then call for a libleveldb1-dbg
and libleveldb1-dev
packages.
The librados has existed in version 1 and version 2 is now the usual version, see the changelog at http://metadata.ftp-master.debian.org/changelogs//main/c/ceph/ceph_0.72.2-2_changelog for more information:
Rename librados1{,-dbg,-dev} packages to librados2{,-dbg,-dev} ones;
conflict with and replace the former ones.
So as a conclusion, these versions are convenience numbers that usually follow the underlying library version number, but now always.