(rust) Do we always need to package minor versions separately?

[Maxime Devos]

Hi guix,

Many rust crates are available in multiple versions in Guix
(say, rust-wayland-scanner-0.29).  The reason is that ((guix)Rust
Crates):

   In the rust ecosystem it is common for multiple incompatible versions
of a package to be used at any given time, so all package definitions
should have a versioned suffix.  The versioned suffix is the left-most
non-zero digit (and any leading zeros, of course).  This follows the
“caret” version scheme intended by Cargo.  Examples ‘rust-clap-2’,
‘rust-rand-0.6’.

I understand the point about version incompatibilities in the land of
oxides.  However, what if a crate is being nice by striving to be
backwards-compatible, perhaps even using, say, semver, to indicate
incompatibilities clearly?  Is it then still necessary to package the
different minor versions, or would major versions suffice?

I would hope the latter, but I don't know any rust.

(Asked in the context of reviewing Rust patches like 54299 and perhaps
simplifying Rust packages in Guix.)

Greetings,
Maxime

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