rpm spec file: what will happen if I change Version from 2 numbers to semantic-versioning (3 numbers)

Question

I'm building my own rpm's. For now I have build versions 0.1, 0.2 etc. I would like to use semantic versioning. Now I wonder how the dependencies will work out when I change that?

Suppose I have old version 0.5 and new version 0.6.0; how will the numbers be interpreted?

Will the old version be interpreted as 0.5.0 or as 0.0.5? If I have another rpm depending on version 0.4.0 I might get into trouble... so how will 0.4.0 compare to 0.5?

Answer 1

0.6.0 will compare as a higher version than 0.5 (0.5.0 would also compare as a higher version than 0.5). 0.4.0 will compare as a lower version than 0.5.

In general, though, if you want to strongarm RPM into considering something as a higher version while changing version number representations, you can increment (or add) the Epoch field. Epochs are considered as more significant than version numbers, but version numbers can still be used.