Tried to update from gnomeicu 0.93 to 0.95.2 and got the following: /home/ghenriks $ rpm -Uvh gnomeicu-0.95.2-1.i386.rpm Preparing... ########################################### [100%] package gnomeicu-0.93-5 (which is newer than gnomeicu-0.95.2-1) is already installed
Look for an epoch in the gnomeicu-0.93-5 package: rpm -q --qf 'Epoch: %{epoch}\n' gnomeicu Do the same with the 0.95 package, you'll need "-qp" instead of "-q". Epoch's in packages take precedence over version-release comparisons. In fact, the higher numbered epoch is always "newer", not matter what the version-release tags are.
Ah, so then all my RPMs with those confusing "1.0.9" and "1.2.5" type version numbers are being ignored in favor of the simple "Epoch: 1" flags in their "1.0.7", "1.2.4" predecessors. That explains all of my Gnome RPMs that the fisher beta overwrote with older versions, too. Whose dumb idea was this, and which files do I patch to fix it? -- Roy Stogner, having lots of fun with the --oldpackage flag and gnome-1.4-beta2 tonight.
Grr.. sorry about the double comment; somehow the back button from the bugzilla "comment added" page managed to resubmit things. While I'm at it, sorry for the sarcastic rant. It just annoys me greatly that now that we have things like Red Carpet working well to install "channels" of RPMs, this new "Epoch" version numbering will make it impossible to install RPMs from multiple developer groups. How am I supposed to install Ximian Gnome 2.0 (Epoch 13) next year when it's guaranteed to be overwritten by Red Hat Gnome 1.4 (Epoch 15) because Red Hat happened to be making packages more often?