Description of problem: EPEL (and Fedora) have this package: perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.4900-3.el6 The version number here is bogus - it should be 0.49, not 0.4900. This bogus number is thus greater than the actual latest released code, 0.59, and a RPM containing more recent code (e.g., from RPMforge) requires a "yum downgrade" for what is actually an upgrade. While fixing, please consider updating to 0.59.
The version number is like it is to maintain the upgrade path from previous versions with 4-digit version numbers such as 0.2603 that upstream has released in the past. Reverting to upstream's current 2-digit format would require an epoch bump, which would still make the EPEL package rpm-newer than packages containing more recent code from elsewhere, unless they too did the same epoch bump. It is unfortunate that perl's and rpm's ideas of version numbering don't line up with each other; that's the underlying cause of the problem.
Updating to the latest upstream code in EPEL would make third-party packages unnecessary. If RPMforge ever needs to replace the EPEL package, it can introduce an epoch then. The version now in EPEL is buggy, so it either needs to be updated or removed altogether.
Hmm, even the version in Rawhide is well out of date. Steve, is there some reason you're holding back from updating this, or are you just too busy at the moment? I could push updates for you if that's the case.
(In reply to comment #3) > Hmm, even the version in Rawhide is well out of date. > > Steve, is there some reason you're holding back from updating this, or are you > just too busy at the moment? I could push updates for you if that's the case. Steve's been quite busy in past months, I think you could do that :)
I've prepared updates locally now, and unfortunately a new module, Digest::Perl::MD5, is required as part of the encrypted file support. In theory this should be interchangeable with the faster Digest::MD5 module but unfortunately Spreadsheet::ParseExcel accesses a private data structure within the pure-perl version rather than using the proper API, which makes it incompatible with Digest::MD5. Review request for perl-Digest-Perl-MD5 is at Bug #732484.
(In reply to comment #5) > (...) > Review request for perl-Digest-Perl-MD5 is at Bug #732484. I'll take that...
perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.fc16 has been submitted as an update for Fedora 16. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.fc16
perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.el6 has been submitted as an update for Fedora EPEL 6. https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.el6
perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.fc16 has been pushed to the Fedora 16 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.
perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-0.5900-1.el6 has been pushed to the Fedora EPEL 6 stable repository. If problems still persist, please make note of it in this bug report.