Comment 8 for bug 1027324

The backward incompatibility consists in that plugins to the gridftp server compiled against an earlier version don't work with the 6.5-1 version in precise. The backward incompatibility was introduced with the release of version 6.5-1 and has since been fixed. First by applying a patch (debian release 6.5-6), and later in upstream which allowed the patch to be dropped (6.10-1). So the gridftp server version in ubuntus after precise can use plugins compiled against gridftp server versions before precise. It is just the version in precise that is not compatible with neither earlier nor later versions. So fixing the backward incompatibility in pricise also means fixing forward compatibility.

The fix for the backward incompatibliity was tested by developpers of gridftp server plugins and these developers were also very active in both providoing input to how it should be fixed and in providing confirmation that the applied fix was working. Admittedly this work was mostly done on Scientific Linux 5 (using the EPEL version of the gridftp server) and not with the Debian version, because SL is these developers' main development platform, and alse the most common deployment plotform for these plugins. The EPEL and Debian version of the globus packages are however very simimilar.

The process of this testing is documented in https://ggus.eu/tech/ticket_show.php?ticket=79541

There is not yet any package in Debian/Ubuntu that installs any plugins to the gridftp server.