Subject: make rpm-dist fails

From: Alex Wallis <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 03:50:33 +0930

I just updated my cvs and make rpm-dist fails with the following
error...

sed: -e expression #3, char 71: Unknown option to 's'
Name field must be present in package: (main package)
Version field must be present in package: (main package)
Release field must be present in package: (main package)
Summary field must be present in package: (main package)
Group field must be present in package: (main package)
License field must be present in package: (main package)
make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/awol/cvs/fvwm/rpm'

Tarballs and bzips seem to build okay.

Alex
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---

From: Mikhael Goikhman <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 29 Jul 2001 23:48:50 +0000

> Tarballs and bzips seem to build okay.

Ok, this is fixed. But then I get:

error: line 15: Illegal char '-' in version: Version:   2.4.1-beta1

It seems that rpm does not like '-' in a version string. I can understand
the reasoning; '-' is used at the left of the version to separate it from
the package name and at the right - to separate it from the revision.

There are more reasons to only use numeric x.y.z for a version string.
For example, some tools like /bin/sort, configure in fvwm-themes, package
managers may consider 2.4.1-beta1 version more recent than 2.4.1.

I think the common practice is to change a version string only after a
final release (not just stable), I see no reason for us not to do this.
I.e. the version in configure.in is 2.4.1. If there is a need to release a
non-final version, the tarball is named fvwm-2.4.1-beta1.tar.gz, but the
version is still 2.4.1. There is no confusion, just like there is no
confusion in daily snapshots as long as they are renamed propertly.

With rpm it is even siplier, nothing should be renamed, "make rpm-dist" by
default creates fvwm-x.y.z-0.20010730; the release starting with 0 is used
by convention for a non-final version, the final release is greater than 1.

So, IMHO we should put only numeric values x.y.z in configure.in, in this
case 2.4.1. Removing postfixes will also remove some pressure from you in
the following releases (to change version only at the last moment and not
before). You will even be able to use make_fvwmdist.sh again.

Another (stupid) reason is that having 2.4.0-pre1 version creates module
subdir 2.4.0-pre1 even if there is no a single change from 2.4.0 subdir.

Regards,
Mikhael.