-The ``magic'' for a recompilation-only NMU is triggered by using the
-third-level number on the Debian part of the version. For instance,
-if the latest version you are recompiling against was version
-``2.9-3'', your NMU should carry a version of ``2.9-3.0.1''. If the
-latest version was ``3.4-2.1'', your NMU should have a version number
-of ``3.4-2.1.1''.
+The ``magic'' for a recompilation-only NMU is triggered by using a
+suffix appended to the package version number,
+following the form b<number>.
+For instance, if the latest version you are
+recompiling against was version ``2.9-3'', your NMU should carry a
+version of ``2.9-3+b1''. If the latest version was ``3.4+b1'' (i.e, a
+native package with a previous recompilation NMU), your NMU should have
+a version number of ``3.4+b2''.
+
+<footnote>
+In the past, such NMUs used the third-level number on the Debian part of
+the revision to denote their recompilation-only status; however, this
+syntax was ambiguous with native packages and did not allow proper
+ordering of recompile-only NMUs, source NMUs, and security NMUs on the
+same package, and has therefore been abandoned in favor of this new
+syntax.</footnote>