I had an IM session with John about this earlier, but I thought I'd throw this out to the public.
Basically I'm trying to figure out a versioning scheme for OSCAR Packages.
As far as naming is conerned, there are 2 types of packages - a package which includes RPMs or a package which configures RPMs (or deb or whatever...)
For the first case, an example would be Ganglia. The Ganglia version is 2.5.6-1 - this is fine and dandy, so the package version is 2.5.6-1 too.
Clearly, if more than 1 rpm, you must pick one for the version; or use an oscar-based version, e.g., 1.0-1
However, what happens when I make changes to the Ganglia _package_ (and keep the RPMs the same)? I can't really up the release number ("1") and the epoch # isn't currently displayed in the selector/OPD... is this even the 'correct' way of using the epoch number?
The version number is intended for the actual project, and the release number is meant for the package. For example, in "2.5.6-1", the "2.5.6" would refer to the contents of the original tarball, and the "1" would refer to any patches made by the packager, along with any other package-related issues.
If the ganglia developer modifies the underlying tarball, they should up the version number.
If *you*, i.e., not the Ganglia maintainer, want to alter the ganglia tarball, you should only do this via patching. Patching clearly reflects a change to the tarball not made by the maintainer. So, upping the release number is, in fact, the Right Thing (TM) to do if you apply a patch to the tarball or mess with the package (RPM or OPD) itself.
The epoch number is a way to order rpms whose version-release pair doesn't order correctly. Examples can include changes to the numbering scheme, date-based versions that don't encode the date as "yyyymmdd", &etc.
While it's tempting to try and divine the name, version, and release number from the "name-version-release.arch.rpm" convention, it's not safe. You should only query the package to determine these things; the epoch can *only* be determined this way---packages with "undefined" epochs will display "(none)".
For the second scenario, let's say I'm modifying the package ntpconfig. It does not provide any RPMs so I can't version it based on included RPMs - should I just up the version number arbitrarily (as the package author/maintainer)?
But of course...
-- David N. Lombard Rossmoor, Orange County, CA http://www.fourmilab.ch/cgi-bin/uncgi/Earth?imgsize=320&opt=-z&lat=33.8&ns=North&lon=118.08&ew=West&alt=7&img=learth.evif
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