> How many packages do you, as a package maintainer, maintain? Can you say with high confidence that you are aware of all of the flags offered by all of those p

> How many packages do you, as a package maintainer, maintain? Can you say with high confidence that you are aware of all of the flags offered by all of those packages, including changes to the defaults between package releases? Absolutely. For a responsible package maintainer, reading changelogs and release notes of new releases is a must. For sensitive software (eg: key system libraries), I usually also look at the full diff between releases. I also run tests with dependent software before uploading my version, lest I break any packages that depend on mine. etc. And this is quite typical of your average distribution package maintainer.