Fedora Project launches Pre-Extras

[Dag Wieers]

On Fri, 17 Dec 2004, Michael Schwendt wrote:

> On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 12:27:57 -0500, John Dennis wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2004-12-17 at 11:56, Dag Wieers wrote:
> > > If you use different repositories and there's no coordination, there's no 
> > > proper way to compare the release tags anyway. The discussion about either 
> > > the disttag or the vendortag are useless.
> > 
> > I agree with Dag here, at the moment if one tries to compare packages
> > between two distinctly different distributions the comparison is
> > meaningless. While it may not be ideal the current mechanism makes
> > strong assumptions concerning common buildroots, a constraint difficult
> > to assert compliance with across differing distributions. While in
> > practice installing packages from different distributions might work
> > there is no assurance it will and no one likely would come to the rescue
> > should problems arise if one is engaged in this practice.
> > 
> > That fact however does not diminish the usefulness of having the
> > distribution name encoded in the rpm name for the benefit of human
> > beings. It does however require for any given package in a given
> > distribution use a consistent naming scheme so as not to alter the
> > result of comparisons. 
> 
> It doesn't add any value. When you receive a bug report about
> foo-2.0-1.i386.rpm (assuming it's your package) and the reporter
> referred to foo-2.0-1 specifically (because the bugzilla form asks him
> to do so), have you ever verified whether it was really your package
> and not an arbitrary one found at rpmseek.com?
> Other example. Fedora.us used the 0.fdr prefix. After some time, in
> message boards, helpful users concluded that a package would be from
> fedora.us because it has .fdr in the package name. But there are other
> repositories and individuals who use the same repo tag, and everybody
> is free to use it too.

Which is why I considered .fdr. for fedora.us as a bad choice for a 
repotag.


> The same applies to distribution tags. As long as '.FC3' and friends
> are not too common, they stand out when you look at a package name.
> As soon as many other packagers use the same dist tags, they don't
> add anything other than influencing RPM version comparison.

How does it influence the RPM version comparison in a relevant way ?

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