My thoughts on repotag

[Dag Wieers]

On Mon, 19 Mar 2007, Michael Schwendt wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 14:44:00 +0100 (CET), Dag Wieers wrote:
> 
> > > > > It still fails for branch-specific (i.e. dist-specific) fixes, where the
> > > > > least-significant portion of the full %release value is increased for
> > > > > rebuilds or minor fixes:
> > > > >
> > > > > 	foo-1.0.0-2.el5.fdr.1 < foo-1.0.0-2.el5.rf
> > > > 
> > > > but foo-1.0.0-2.el5.fdr < foo-1.0.0-2.el5.rf so it wouldnt be installed in 
> > > > the first place if you had those repos configured ...
> > > 
> > > And that is flawed.
> > > 
> > > The package release string gets longer without telling anything about
> > > which of the packages is newer. Anyone still want to claim that these tags
> > > don't influence RPM version comparison? ;) Packagers would be forced to
> > > increment the most-significant part of %release, breaking the dist-upgrade
> > > path,
> > > 
> > >     foo-1.0.0-3.el4.fdr > foo-1.0.0-2.el5.fdr
> > > 
> > > unless superfluous mass-updates and mass-rebuilds are used.
> > 
> > Once again a self-serving example, it has nothing to do with repotags.
> > 
> > 	foo-1.0.0-3.el4 > foo-1.0.0-2.el5
> > 
> > I'm sure you could have come up with this:
> > 
> > 	foo-1.0.0-2.el4.1.fdr < foo-1.0.0-2.el5.0.fdr
> > 
> > Which is exactly how it used to be without the repotag. I can only see bad 
> > intent in the form of your examples.
> 
> Do you realise that now you've gone as far as comparing a release digit
> with a repo tag?

No, I am not. In fact I have the same number of components.

	2	vs	2
	el	vs	el
	4.1	vs	5.0
	fdr	vs	fdr


> 2.el4.1 wins over all 2.el4.somerepotag

I fail to see how that is a problem ?

Since 2 packages from different repositories have no relation.
There is no reason why this behaviour is right or wrong.

In fact I would expect 2.el4.1 to win over 2.el4.repotag even in a single 
repository context. (eg. when you add a repotag but older packages 
have not) That's how RPM was designed, that's how I expect it to be.


> Version comparison hell. Upgrade race. Again and again.

Bad examples. Bad argumentation. Again and again.

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]