Why is "-8+etch15" appended to this customer's PHP version string?

Question

I had a customer report a wierd behavior related to PHP-#38146

I did var_dump(phpversion()) and I get:

string(14) "5.2.0-8+etch15"

What the heck is the -8, and the +etch15, some sort of Debian related extension of PHP? Related to hardened PHP or something? Does this mean they are essentially running a 5.2.0 build?

Answer 1

This section of Debian's documentation might answer some of your questions : 5.6.12 Version (quoting) :

The version number of a package. The format is: [epoch:]upstream_version[-debian_revision]

And (there is more on that page, only quoting parts of it) :

upstream_version
This is the main part of the version number. It is usually the version number of the original ("upstream") package from which the .deb file has been made, if this is applicable. Usually this will be in the same format as that specified by the upstream author(s);

debian_revision
This part of the version number specifies the version of the Debian package based on the upstream version. It may contain only alphanumerics and the characters + . ~ (plus, full stop, tilde)

In your case, with "5.2.0-8+etch15" :

• "5.2.0" is the upstream_version
• and "8+etch15" is the debian_revision

Which means, as you guessed, that you are running PHP 5.2.0.