On Fri, May 28, 2021 at 9:32 AM Steven A. Falco <stevenfalco@gmail.com> wrote:
I understand that we should put "Obsoletes" statements in a spec file when a package changes its name, so the package with the new name can replace the package with the old name.

But how long should the Obsoletes statements be left in the spec file?  Should they stay there permanently, or should they be removed after some period of time, say after a few years?

In particular, the KiCAD documentation used to be in a dozen packages, one per language.  Between Fedora 23 and Fedora 24, this was changed, and all languages were placed in a single package, and Obsoletes lines were added so the new combined doc package could replace the individual language packages.  Should those Obsoletes be left in the spec file, or is it ok to remove them, given that the name change happened 5 years ago?

Fedora requires that upgrading should be possible from N-2 to current, so the TLDR version: Two releases. After that, there is no expectation that the system should upgrade cleanly. So things like Obsoletes, and version conditionals can be removed.

If I mis-spoke, I'm sure I'll be corrected shortly :)

Thanks,
Richard