[smart] Re: [Smart Package Manager] #94: [RFE] support for epoch promotion (required by RHEL3 and clones)

[Smart Package Manager]

#94: [RFE] support for epoch promotion (required by RHEL3 and clones)
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
       Id:  94           |      Status:  reopened                
Component:  backend-rpm  |    Modified:  Mon Jul 11 03:50:21 2005
 Severity:  normal       |   Milestone:                          
 Priority:  normal       |     Version:                          
    Owner:  niemeyer     |    Reporter:  graham.gillies@alea.ca  
-------------------------+--------------------------------------------------
Changes (by Axel.Thimm@ATrpms.net):

  * resolution:  invalid =>
  * summary:  Too specific when looking for RPM to satisfy dependency. =>
              [RFE] support for epoch promotion (required by
              RHEL3 and clones)
  * status:  closed => reopened

Comment:

 It is a bug in the package A, because it did not specify the epoch in
 the dependency. But unfortunately this was tolerated until very
 recently with a very broken mechanism ("epoch promotion"). This
 mechanism would ignore the epoch in comparisons depending on whether
 the package is installed or is being installed.

 The distributions having such broken dependencies and the even more
 broken workaround are mostly EOL'd. Only RHEL3 and clones are still an
 issue (official EOL is in 5 1/2 years and still a very popular distro
 family), and the reporter seems to be using this.

 apt does have support for epoch promotion. It scans RPM::Options for
 --promoteepoch and adjusts the dependency calculation
 accordingly. Perhaps this could be taken over?

 I think RHEL3 and clones support widens the target audience, would it
 be too hard to introduce epoch promotion support in smart?

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://smartpm.python-hosting.com/ticket/94>
Smart Package Manager <http://smartpm.python-hosting.com/>
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