non-integer epoch?

[Ryan Schmidt]

On Aug 11, 2018, at 15:58, René J.V. Bertin wrote:

>> " Some Portfile authors have used large epoch values that look like a date, but there is no reason to do so"
> 
> nor is there a reason not to (that's not based on an ad-hoc decision) ...
> 
> The doc reads a bit as if the epoch is equivalent to the `N:` element that some Debian/Ubuntu packages prepend to the version, except that that element is visible to the user so they can understand seemingly counter-intuitive version progressions.
> (Note that I'm not perfectly certain what that N: element stands for.)
> 
> 
>>> A question though: what epoch was being used for those ports of mine - just the `floor(epoch)` (or `(int)(epoch)`) value? If I'm going to have to correct my ports I'd just as well avoid the introduction of a new epoch ...
>> 
>> I have no idea.
> 
> 
> Let me rephase: how does one query the epoch value for an installed port?

Well it's probably in the registry. You could open the registry in an SQLite client and query it (after loading the MacPorts SQLite plugin).