The RPM Guide http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/drafts/rpm-guide-en/ should document the optional fourth argument to %defattr when describing %defattr anyway. Cf. http://www.redhat.com/archives/rpm-list/2004-January/msg00149.html (stickster told me to file this here)
This bug remains open in a NEW state waiting for a maintainer for the RPM Guide.
OK, I got brought up on the discussion from IRC. While we aren't actively recruiting for a writer for this guide, it does get interest. I've been wanting rpm.org to takeover maintainership, but that really means a willing writer or two need to bring it over and begin maintaining it there. Remaining in Fedora is OK, but we continue to be resource starved working on other projects. OTOH, there is a perspective that the RPM Guide is aimed at the core contributors to Fedora, and there is where Fedora Docs should be focusing. Discussion on that should happen on fedora-docs-list. To address the idea of providing a patch for this bug and bz #199318 ... here are instructions on getting the source via anonymous CVS: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/DocsProject/CvsUsage#Anonymous_CVS You can post a patch back to here. If you have a Fedora Account, you can also request access to the 'cvsdocs' group and contribute directly to the source. Thanks - Karsten
Moving to the new rpm-guide component to help in finding and resolving all RPM Guide bugs.
This guide is being resurrected. Reassigned all tickets to developer.
I took on a project to rewrite or strongly edit the existing guide. I don't think that any comment herein refers to the most recent rpm guide.
The RPM Guide has been deprecated in favor of https://rpm-packaging-guide.github.io/. Closing the issue here.