[Rpm-maint] [rpm-software-management/rpm] version comparison with epoch does not work as expected (#450)

[Jeff Johnson]

Extreme or not, RPM is expected to deal with missing values (not only optional/missing epoch) sanely and intuitively, you aren't the first to complain.

Fix the issue and *SOLVE* the engineering problem(s) instead of

1) claiming that "epoch promotion" doesn't "work" with clear history to the contrary
2) pointing out that distributions are not maintaining upgradeability by changing epochs across major releases
3) suggesting new fangled special case ornamentation like '*' that does whatever you want the comparison to do
4) begging the question by ignoring other similar problems with missing values in EVR

all of which has been attempted/suggested in this thread.

For the specific case I gave, with all values missing, one could certainly demand that at least one of EVR be present while parsing a dependency.

Any comparison system that permis missing values MUST supply sane/natural/intuitive defaults for missing values, or attempt explicit data validation checks to prevent illformed/invalid/indeterminate/unexpected results when comparing.

Or we will be discussing the mysterious epoch behaviors for another decade or two.

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