Use bash patchlevel as part of RPM version?

[Ralf Corsepius]

Roman Rakus wrote:
> Hi,
> There is a bug (#496780) requesting to use patchlevel of bash as part of 
> RPM version. So today bash-4.0-6.fc11.i586 would be 
> bash-4.0.16-6.fc11.i586. What do you think about it?
It's a bad idea.

c.f. http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/PackageNamingGuidelines#Package_Version

Rule of thumb: Try to let an rpm's version match with upstream's version 
whenever possible, otherwise you're very likely to meet conflicts with 
upstream's versioning.

> Could it break anything? 
Well, not actually break, but you (rsp. the Fedora package maintainer) 
are not unlikely to hit NEVR issues with upstream.

E.g. with your proposal you would be in trouble if upstream decides to 
release 4.0.1 - You have to bump epoch: etc.


My recommendation: Either ignore upstream's patch-level in an rpm's NEVR 
and use your own NEVR scheme, or try to incorporate upstream's 
"patch-levels" into an rpm's %release, if you "feel like it".

I would not do so.

Ralf