[Fedora-packaging] release of subpackage with version different from main rpm

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Thu, 2008-01-03 at 00:02 +0900, Mamoru Tasaka wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> I guess there are some packages of which subpackage rpms have versions 
> which are different from those of the main rpm.
> For example, on rawhide perl has 4:5.8.8-32.fc8 EVR and its subpackage
> perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker has 0:6.30-32.fc8 EVR.
> 
> On such case are there any policy for release number?
Except that all packages' and sub-packages' NEVRs must be steadily
increasing, there are no explicit policies.


>  For perl currently
> the main perl rpm and its subpackages have the same release number.
Right, ... because they are being built as part of the main-perl
package.

> However in other rpms the case may happen that only the version of 
> main rpm will be bumped where the version of its subpackage won't change.
Right, this also happens for the perl-package. 

Actually, ATM, the main-perl-package-sources and the sub-packages's
sources are independently released, but built simultaneously.

I.e. if wanting to be pendantic, theoretically the main-perl package and
it's sub-packages are independent.

I.e. the fact the sub-packages currently receive identical %rel-tags as
the main perl-packages is motivated from "trying to keep the perl
package's spec file simple" (and to avoid rpmbuild bugs - processing 
%version/%release in *.specs is error-prone at best) and can be
considered somewhat "sloppy"/"lazy".

> In that case usually we want to switch the release number of main rpm
> to 1%{?dist}, however if its subpackage has different version the release
> number of the subpackage usually can't be back to 1%{?dist}.
Right.

>  How should
> we treat this case?
I don't see any alternative to having to start with a %release !=
<old-version>%{?dist} or to play tricks with epochs  (Which I'd rather
not recommend to do).

Ralf