RHEL6 Workstation vs. EPEL6 Conflict Check and a few resulting questions

[inode0]

This week I took a few minutes and compared packages on a RHEL6
Workstation install with EPEL packages available to it. Here is what I
found.

IDENTICAL VERSIONS

a2ps-0:4.14-10.1.el6.i686
a2ps-0:4.14-10.1.el6.x86_64
emacs-a2ps-0:4.14-10.1.el6.x86_64
emacs-a2ps-el-0:4.14-10.1.el6.x86_64
html2ps-0:1.0-0.4.b5.el6.noarch
libart_lgpl-0:2.3.20-5.1.el6.i686
libart_lgpl-0:2.3.20-5.1.el6.x86_64
libart_lgpl-devel-0:2.3.20-5.1.el6.i686
libart_lgpl-devel-0:2.3.20-5.1.el6.x86_64
lzop-0:1.02-0.9.rc1.el6.x86_64
perl-B-Keywords-0:1.09-3.1.el6.noarch
perl-Class-Accessor-0:0.31-6.1.el6.noarch
perl-Class-Data-Inheritable-0:0.08-3.1.el6.noarch
perl-Class-Trigger-0:0.13-2.1.el6.noarch
perl-Devel-Cycle-0:1.10-3.1.el6.noarch
perl-Email-Date-Format-0:1.002-5.el6.noarch
perl-Exception-Class-0:1.29-1.1.el6.noarch
perl-File-Copy-Recursive-0:0.38-4.el6.noarch
perl-Font-AFM-0:1.20-3.1.el6.noarch
perl-HTML-Format-0:2.04-11.1.el6.noarch
perl-Locale-PO-0:0.21-2.1.el6.noarch
perl-MIME-Lite-0:3.027-2.el6.noarch
perl-MIME-Types-0:1.28-2.el6.noarch
perl-Module-Find-0:0.08-3.el6.noarch
perl-Net-SMTP-SSL-0:1.01-4.el6.noarch
perl-PadWalker-0:1.9-1.el6.x86_64
perl-Perl-Critic-0:1.105-2.el6.noarch
perl-Pod-Spell-0:1.01-6.1.el6.noarch
perl-String-Format-0:1.15-2.1.el6.noarch
perl-Syntax-Highlight-Engine-Kate-0:0.04-5.1.el6.noarch
perl-Test-Memory-Cycle-0:1.04-7.1.el6.noarch
perl-Test-Perl-Critic-0:1.01-7.1.el6.noarch
perl-UNIVERSAL-can-0:1.15-1.el6.noarch
perl-UNIVERSAL-isa-0:1.03-1.el6.noarch
perl-XML-TokeParser-0:0.05-2.1.el6.noarch
perl-XML-Writer-0:0.606-6.el6.noarch
ruby-shadow-0:1.4.1-13.el6.x86_64
scons-0:2.0.1-1.el6.noarch
xhtml2ps-0:1.0-0.4.b5.el6.noarch

I was surprised to find so many packages in EPEL with the same version
as the same package in RHEL. While this doesn't cause any problems in
cases where the RHEL package is already installed in other cases, a
new install or something pulled in by another dependency, will grab
the EPEL package in a more or less default configuration which doesn't
seem to be a good thing to be happening.

Why are there all these packages in EPEL with an identical version to
packages in RHEL?

HIGHER VERSION IN EPEL

koan-0:2.2.3-2.el6.noarch (koan-0:2.0.7-21.el6sat.noarch)
libesmtp-0:1.0.4-16.el6.i686 (libesmtp-0:1.0.4-15.el6.i686)
libesmtp-0:1.0.4-16.el6.x86_64 (libesmtp-0:1.0.4-15.el6.x86_64)
libmnl-0:1.0.3-4.el6.i686 (libmnl-0:1.0.2-3.el6.i686)
libmnl-0:1.0.3-4.el6.x86_64 (libmnl-0:1.0.2-3.el6.x86_64)
libmnl-devel-0:1.0.3-4.el6.i686 (libmnl-devel-0:1.0.2-3.el6.i686)
libmnl-devel-0:1.0.3-4.el6.x86_64 (libmnl-devel-0:1.0.2-3.el6.x86_64)
libnfnetlink-0:1.0.0-3.el6.i686 (libnfnetlink-0:1.0.0-1.el6.i686)
libnfnetlink-0:1.0.0-3.el6.x86_64 (libnfnetlink-0:1.0.0-1.el6.x86_64)
libnfnetlink-devel-0:1.0.0-3.el6.i686 (libnfnetlink-devel-0:1.0.0-1.el6.i686)
libnfnetlink-devel-0:1.0.0-3.el6.x86_64
(libnfnetlink-devel-0:1.0.0-1.el6.x86_64)
python-mako-0:0.5.0-5.el6.noarch (python-mako-0:0.3.4-1.el6.noarch)
python-zope-interface-0:3.7.0-2.el6.x86_64
(python-zope-interface-0:3.5.2-2.1.el6.x86_64)

Some of these have been corrected and the rest now have bugs filed
against them. The only one that I'm curious about really is koan which
conflicts with the same package in the rhn-tools channel. While my gut
thinks that should be considered part of base RHEL I don't know if it
ever has been?!

HIGHER VERSION IN RHEL

biosdevname-0:0.3.11-1.el6.x86_64 (biosdevname-0:0.3.4-1.el6.x86_64)
febootstrap-0:3.12-1.el6.x86_64 (febootstrap-0:2.7-1.el6.x86_64)
ht2html-0:2.0-10.1.el6.noarch (ht2html-0:2.0-10.el6.noarch)
jabberpy-0:0.5-0.21.el6sat.noarch (jabberpy-0:0.5-0.21.el6.noarch)
osutil-0:2.0.1-1.el6.x86_64 (osutil-0:1.3.1-3.el6.1.x86_64)
perl-Class-MethodMaker-0:2.16-4.el6.x86_64
(perl-Class-MethodMaker-0:2.15-2.el6.x86_64)
perl-Config-Simple-0:4.59-5.1.el6.noarch
(perl-Config-Simple-0:4.59-5.el6.noarch)
perl-File-pushd-0:1.00-3.1.el6.noarch (perl-File-pushd-0:1.00-0.3.1.el6.noarch)
perl-IO-Tty-0:1.08-4.el6.x86_64 (perl-IO-Tty-0:1.08-3.el6.x86_64)
perl-IPC-Run-0:0.84-2.el6.noarch (perl-IPC-Run-0:0.84-1.el6.noarch)
perl-Term-ProgressBar-0:2.09-10.el6.noarch
(perl-Term-ProgressBar-0:2.09-8.el6.noarch)
perl-Test-Spelling-0:0.11-7.el6.noarch
(perl-Test-Spelling-0:0.11-5.1.el6.noarch)
pexpect-0:2.3-6.el6.noarch (pexpect-0:2.3-5.el6.noarch)
php-tidy-0:5.3.3-14.el6_3.x86_64 (php-tidy-0:5.3.3-1.el6.x86_64)
pki-symkey-0:9.0.3-24.el6.x86_64 (pki-symkey-0:1.3.2-3.el6.1.x86_64)
PyPAM-0:0.5.0-12.el6.x86_64 (PyPAM-0:0.5.0-11.el6.x86_64)
python-krbV-0:1.0.90-3.el6.x86_64 (python-krbV-0:1.0.90-1.el6.x86_64)
python-netaddr-0:0.7.5-4.el6.noarch (python-netaddr-0:0.7.5-1.el6.noarch)
python-suds-0:0.4.1-3.el6.noarch (python-suds-0:0.4.1-1.el6.noarch)
python-urwid-0:0.9.9.1-4.el6.x86_64 (python-urwid-0:0.9.9.1-1.el6.x86_64)
rhn-custom-info-0:5.4.14-1.el6sat.noarch (rhn-custom-info-0:5.4.5-1.el6.noarch)
rhnpush-0:5.5.42-7.el6sat.noarch (rhnpush-0:0.4.5-2.el6.noarch)
scl-utils-0:20120423-2.el6.x86_64 (scl-utils-0:20120229-1.el6.x86_64)
scl-utils-build-0:20120423-2.el6.x86_64
(scl-utils-build-0:20120229-1.el6.x86_64)
wordnet-0:3.0-14.el6.i686 (wordnet-0:3.0-13.el6.i686)
wordnet-0:3.0-14.el6.x86_64 (wordnet-0:3.0-13.el6.x86_64)
wordnet-devel-0:3.0-14.el6.i686 (wordnet-devel-0:3.0-13.el6.i686)
wordnet-devel-0:3.0-14.el6.x86_64 (wordnet-devel-0:3.0-13.el6.x86_64)
xerces-c-0:3.0.1-20.el6.i686 (xerces-c-0:3.0.1-0.20.1.el6.i686)
xerces-c-0:3.0.1-20.el6.x86_64 (xerces-c-0:3.0.1-0.20.1.el6.x86_64)
xerces-c-devel-0:3.0.1-20.el6.i686 (xerces-c-devel-0:3.0.1-0.20.1.el6.i686)
xerces-c-devel-0:3.0.1-20.el6.x86_64 (xerces-c-devel-0:3.0.1-0.20.1.el6.x86_64)
xerces-c-doc-0:3.0.1-20.el6.noarch (xerces-c-doc-0:3.0.1-0.20.1.el6.noarch)

This last group is harmless as far as I'm can tell.

John