[arch-dev-public] Pacman epoch and what you need to know

[Pierre Schmitz]

On Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:23:03 -0500, Dan McGee wrote:
> With 3.5.0 out, we no longer recognize the "force" option in
> PKGBUILDs; this has been replaced by the 'epoch' variable. What you
> need to know:
> 
> * If you've never forced a package upgrade, don't go introducing epoch.
> * Default epoch is 0.
> * If you've ever used 'force' in a package (even if it isn't there
> now!), you should probably set epoch to 1 next time you build the
> package.

Could you explain why this would be needed? If the force flag was
removed the current version is probably higher than any of the previous.

> * Each time you increment epoch, it will completely and utterly
> outrank any previous version of the package. Make sure this is what
> you want.
> * epoch should be seen as a last resort.


-- 
Pierre Schmitz, https://users.archlinux.de/~pierre