gene heskett posted on Thu, 03 Nov 2011 21:37:56 -0400 as excerpted:
> KMail is 1.13.7. kdepim seems not to even be installed. Not in $PATH
> anyway. The package manager says it is installed, version 4.4.11.1
FWIW, "KDE as we know it" ships in a series of huge monolithic tarballs,
each of which contain many sub-projects. kdepim contains kmail,
akregator, knode, kopete, korganizer, kaddressbook, and other assorted
executables, plus libraries and some data. Some distros have a single
package for the whole tarball, others have individual packages for each
component within the tarball (with some variability as to how the tarball
is split into individual packages/components), often with a meta-package
that will install all of the individual packages as dependencies.
So there's kdegames, kdepim, kdegraphics, kdelibs, kde-workspace,
kde-runtime, etc. (The latter two and a third were originally kdebase,
but it got split in three for kde 4.6 or 4.7, IIRC, so there's now three
smaller tarballs instead of one larger kdebase.)
kmail is one component in the kdepim tarball.
So normally, all of the kde core tarballs update together and have the
same version, so kde 4.7.3 just came out, with for example
thekdegames-4.7.3 tarball.
But kdepim got stuck at 4.4.x for awhile, as the kdepim developers worked
on trying to make the upgrade to akonadified kmail as smooth and painless
as possible. Thus, while the rest of kde upgraded thru 4.5 and then 4.6,
kdepim (and thus the kmail component within it, along with its other
components) had only the minimal updates necessary to keep them working
with the newer kdelibs, etc. Those updates were numbered 4.4.7+, up to
4.4.11 or so (I don't know how high it eventually went). This kdepim
4.4.x series still contained the pre-akonadi-kmail 1.x.
Then along about kde 4.6.2, a kdepim 4.6.0 was finally released with
kmail2, but it was only for early adopters. Later, around kde 4.6.4 or
4.6.5, a kdepim 4.6.1 was released. It was a slight update but still for
early adopters only.
With 4.7, kdepim got back in sync with the rest of kde, so the kdepim
version again matches that of the rest of kde. However, it's still a bit
rough around the edges so a few distros are still shipping the last kdepim
4.4 with the still un-akonadified kmail1, with a few patches.
But as kdepim 4.7 matures, the kdepim devs have dropped support for the
old kdepim 4.4 series with its un-akonadified kmail1, and the first
regressions have appeared for those still using it as the rest of kde
continues to advance. With kde 4.8, the gap will probably be wide enough
that few if any distros will continue to ship the old kdepim 4.4 with it,
instead shipping the new version-synced kdepim.
Thus, for kde 4.4, kdepim was version-synced with the rest of kde. For
kde 4.5, kdepim remained 4.4.x. kde 4.6 was early transitional, with
only a few distros shipping kdepim 4.6, while most stuck with the still
supported kdepim 4.4. kde 4.7 is late transitional, with more distros
shipping kdepim 4.7 but a few sticking with the older 4.4. By kde 4.8,
nearly all distros will be shipping the again synced kdepim 4.8 as well.
kmail relates to all of this as a part of kdepim, with kdepim 4.4 still
having the pre-akonadified kmail1, while kdepim 4.6+ contains the newly
akonadified kmail2.
So for any problem related to kmail (or any other kdepim component, for
that matter), with kde 4.4 and earlier, simply stating the kde version is
normally enough as kdepim was version synced with it. Similarly with the
forthcoming kde 4.8, simply stating the kde version should be enough as
kdepim and thus kmail should be synced with it. For kde 4.5, it's enough
to simply remember than kdepim and kmail were still at the 4.4 and kmail1
versions. kde 4.6 and 4.7 are problems, however, as their transitional,
and kmail/kdepim may be either the older kdepim 4.4 or the newer 4.6/4.7
versions, depending on the distro and/or repo used.
Since the kde version you reported, 4.6.x, was within that transitional
zone, more information was needed to nail down the kmail actually being
used. Within a distro-specific context, what they actually shipped would
be known, but as this is an upstream kde list, it'd be only by chance
that someone would be familiar enough with that distro to know what they
shipped, and thus know the kdepim and by extension kmail version you're
using.
Clear as mud? =:^)
So yeah, you won't have a kdepim in your $PATH, as it's the name of the
big multi-component sources tarball. But you might have (and as it
happens did have) a package installed by that name, with an associated
version string, which you now reported, so all the necessary version info
is now there, for anyone with kmail still installed to compare against
and help you with.
But as I said, that's not me, as I switched to claws-mail, and am MUCH
happier with it than I've been with kmail since kde 4.4, when kaddressbook
first went akonadified, thus starting the slide that eventually lead to
my switching to claws-mail in time to not have to install kmail for kde
4.7.0. Soon after, I killed akregator as well, thus eliminating my
dependency on anything kdepim related and allowing me to completely
eliminate it, and with it, nearly all kde related semantic-desktop bits,
from my system. As I've stated before, the performance impact was
dramatic, and I'm **MUCH** happier with kde4 now that I don't have that
semantic desktop junk dragging things down than I EVER was before! =:^)
YMMV, of course, but that's my experience, and with it, I just wish
others could experience how much better kde4 runs without all that
semantic desktop junk dragging it down too. IMO that'd dramatically
improve kde4's image, especially since the worst of the plasma issues
were worked out around kde 4.5 or so and it has improved even more since.
But they say 4.7.3 includes some dramatic semantic desktop performance
improvements, so the performance impact of semantic-desktop might not be
as bad with it. But I'm not about to reinstall all that semantic-desktop
junk to find out, that's for sure!
--
Duncan - List replies preferred. No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master." Richard Stallman
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