Thus spake Mark Amidon:
>
> "Standards"?! It's a good thing you put that in the plural.
>
> I was under the impression that one "should" use the Version of the
> Source Code (and/or tarball) for the %{VERSION} of the RPM, and then
> bump the %{RELEASE} of the RPM for each tweak necessary for the
> package. Thus, if the virgin-source tarball stays the same, then the
> new patches added to the spec file would require a new %{RELEASE};
> however, if the owner of the tarball put a new version number on the
> patched code and published it as such, then the %{VERSION} of the RPM
> would be bumped to match that tarball, and the %{RELEASE} would start
> all over again (at 0 or 1, depending on whether you're deeply steeped in
> C array index conventions or not).
>
> One would also bump the %{RELEASE} for such details as "built for
> RedHat" and "built for SuSE"; clearly, the original Source Code is
> staying the same.
>
> Looking at a typical distribution of 700+ packages, one quickly finds
> that various programmers use different "standards", if any.

I've often wished for some kind of "style guide" like this. It seems
reasonable to me, to only reset the release number when re-writing the
spec file AND changing the version. The idea is that the spec file is
itself a piece of software, being a script for building, packaging,
installing, etc another piece of software, and ought to have a version or
release number in it's own right.

I also wish people noted in the %changelog section when a particular
patch was added or changed, and what purpose it serves.

Wil
--
W. Reilly Cooley wcooley@...
Naked Ape Consulting http://nakedape.cc
LNXS: Linux/GNU for servers, networks, and http://lnxs.org
people who take care of them. *Now with integrated crypto!*
irc.openprojects.net #lnxs

Mencken and Nathan's Second Law of The Average American:
All the postmasters in small towns read all the postcards.



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