Allowing for multiple build alternatives from a single source package layout

[Gilles Filippini]

Hello,

I'm in the process of packaging syrthes scientific software for
Debian[1] and I'm looking for advice regarding what I think is a
scientific software packaging specific problematic. I'll try to expose
it below as precisely as I can.

Usually, in my daily work backgound, users want to be able to have
multiples releases of the same software on their box. Because:
* version x.y.z is used in on going studies
* version x.y.(z+1) is to be used for new studies
* version x.(y+1).z' is being intensively checked
* ...
So, for my daily job, we can have up to 4 different releases of the same
scientific software on the same box.
And we want to have them properly packaged.

What I imagine is to put the soft in /usr/lib/<software>-<release>, or
maybe /usr/lib/<software>/<release> like it is currently done for gcc or
jvm packages. But from the Debian archive pov it isn't suitable to
manage one source package for each of the software releases.

So I'd like to be able, from one source package layout, to be able to
generate:
* Package <software> at release <release> to upload to Debian unstable
* Package <software>-<release> at release <release> to use privately at
work.

Has this problematic been encountered by anyone here before?

Thanks in advance for any insight you could share.

_Gilles.

[1] <http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=531902>