[CentOS] rpm spec version : higher version is seen as older

[Adrian Sevcenco]

On 05/23/2018 10:05 PM, Matthew Miller wrote:
> On Wed, May 23, 2018 at 08:07:52PM +0300, Adrian Sevcenco wrote:
>> Hi! I have a very puzzling problem :
>> one rpm with version 1.2.5 and one with 1.3.1 (spec file does not have
>> Epoch defined)
>>
>> trying to install i get this :
>> [root at storage02 aliprod]# rpm -Uvh
>> xrootd-alicetokenacc-1.3.1-1.el6.x86_64.rpm
>> Preparing...                ###########################################
>> [100%]
>>         package xrootd-alicetokenacc-1:1.2.5-1.el6.x86_64 (which is
>> newer than xrootd-alicetokenacc-1.3.1-1.el6.x86_64) is already installed
> 
> Yeah, "has epoch" is always newer than "doesn't have epoch". You can
> see from the "1:" in 1:1.2.5 that that package *does* have Epoch
> defined.
well, this is what is really puzzling : it it the same spec file without
any epoch defined.. difference being that first one was build in 2015 on
el6 and the last one was built now on up to date el6 ...

>> any idea why this could happen?
>> AFAIK the solution would be the introduction of "Epoch: 1" but i seen
>> that this is usually acceptable only as last resort..
> 
> Looks like you're *already* in that state. I guess you can think of
> this as an example of why it's a last resort, because once done once,
> you're stuck. But now, there you are.
yeah, i will add the epoch to the spec file ... very puzzling why it is
there though..

Thanks!
Adrian