[CentOS] libxml2 update/packaging issues?

Wed Oct 20 20:17:57 UTC 2021
Steve Meier <email at steve-meier.de>

Hello all,

last Friday (Oct 15) I encountered a weird issue relating to the 
libxml2* packages.

I have a script which monitors the CentOS mirrors to find new packages. 
On Friday, these showed up:

libxml2-2.9.1-6.el7.5.i686.rpm
libxml2-2.9.1-6.el7.5.x86_64.rpm
libxml2-devel-2.9.1-6.el7.5.i686.rpm
libxml2-devel-2.9.1-6.el7.5.x86_64.rpm
libxml2-python-2.9.1-6.el7.5.x86_64.rpm
libxml2-static-2.9.1-6.el7.5.i686.rpm
libxml2-static-2.9.1-6.el7.5.x86_64.rpm

However, looking at Scientific Linux 
(https://scientificlinux.org/category/sl-errata/slsa-20213810-1/)
and Red Hat Errata (https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2021:3810) it 
seems that CentOS is one release
behind (el7.5 from CentOS vs. el7.6 for SL and RHEL).

Looking at my systems which have libxml2 packages installed, it gets 
even weirder:

$ rpm -q --queryformat 
'%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\t%{BUILDTIME}\t%{INSTALLTIME}\n' libxml2
2.9.1-6.el7.5	1601484919	1605352337

My system already has this exact release.

$ rpm -qi libxml2
Name        : libxml2
Version     : 2.9.1
Release     : 6.el7.5
Architecture: x86_64
Install Date: Sa 14 Nov 2020 12:12:17 CET
Signature   : RSA/SHA256, Mi 14 Okt 2020 20:55:29 CEST, Key ID 
24c6a8a7f4a80eb5
Source RPM  : libxml2-2.9.1-6.el7.5.src.rpm
Build Date  : Mi 30 Sep 2020 18:55:19 CEST

The version which is now on the mirrors has a newer build date (Oct 14, 
2021):

$ rpm -qp --queryformat 
'%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}\t%{BUILDTIME}\t%{INSTALLTIME}\n' 
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/7/updates/x86_64/Packages/libxml2-2.9.1-6.el7.5.x86_64.rpm
2.9.1-6.el7.5	1634214499	(none)

But its latest changelog entry does not match the latest changelog entry 
in the CentOS Git here:
https://git.centos.org/rpms/libxml2/c/7219ebb7c53b80409f3f8fa3433d3ecf35665f84?branch=c7

So, to make a long story short: I believe there should be a el7.6 
version of the libxml2* packages
but instead we somehow have a repackaged el7.5 which is not up-to-date.

Kind regards,
   Steve