Description of problem: $ fedpkg verrel warning: bogus date in %changelog: Sun Aug 09 2014 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones> 2:2.1.0-3 However the date is *not* bogus ...? In fact, today is that date. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): fedpkg-1.18-1.fc22.noarch How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. Type `fedpkg verrel'
The %changelog section starts: * Sun Aug 09 2014 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones> 2:2.1.0-3 - Non-upstream patch for aarch64 which uncompresses -kernel parameter. * Sun Aug 03 2014 Richard W.M. Jones <rjones> 2:2.1.0-2 - Update to qemu 2.1.0 final released version. - Drop optimization flags when compiling on aarch64 (see RHBZ#1126199). * Fri Jul 25 2014 Cole Robinson <crobinso> 2:2.1.0-0.5.rc3 - Update to qemu-2.1.0-rc3 * Wed Jul 16 2014 Cole Robinson <crobinso> 2:2.1.0-0.4.rc2 - Update to qemu-2.1.0-rc2 * Mon Jul 14 2014 Peter Robinson <pbrobinson> 2:2.1.0-0.3.rc1 - Build qemu-system-aarch64 on all arches - Run check on ARM arches, just don't fail the build ATM
fedpkg calls rpm to query NVR from specfile. rpm is to blame here to be too strict. Minimal example of that output: rpm --quiet --specfile *.spec It isn't exactly the same command that fedpkg uses as it defines & undefines multiple macros and specifies query format. And finally you can run either fedpkg lint or directly: rpmlint *.spec To check what problem rpm sees in your spec file.
The problem turned out to be the XFCE Clock widget, which displayed an incorrect date (Sunday 9 Aug). Something to do with it being after midnight on Saturday but before 1am, so the local day is Sunday but the GMT date is (Sat) 9th Aug.