Packaging: why does the RPM spec have both Provides & Obsoletes for the same packages?

[Geoff Simmons]

Hello,

The spec file for RPM packages:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/varnishcache/pkg-varnish-cache/master/redhat/varnish.spec

... has this passage:

Provides:  varnish-libs%{?_isa} = %{version}-%{release}
Provides:  varnish-libs = %{version}-%{release}
Obsoletes: varnish-libs

Provides:  varnish-docs = %{version}-%{release}
Obsoletes: varnish-docs

Provides:  varnish-debuginfo%{?_isa} = %{version}-%{release}
Provides:  varnish-debuginfo = %{version}-%{release}
Obsoletes: varnish-debuginfo

This may be an RPM technique that I'm not familiar with, but why does it
have both Provides and Obsoletes for -libs, -docs and -debuginfo?

Since the Obsoletes don't specify a version, my best guess is that it's
something about updating to newer versions. But wouldn't newer versions
(newer version and RPM release number) be enough for that?

Asking because I'm building a custom RPM package for which I'd also like
to have the debuginfo. Creating the debuginfo RPM is easy enough, by
removing this line from the spec:

%global debug_package %{nil}

But then when you try to run debuginfo-install, it says that the
debuginfo package is obsoleted by the Varnish package.

I can get the debuginfo to install by removing the Obsoletes line for
varnish-debuginfo, and rebuilding the RPMs. But I'm confused about why
it was there in the first place, and concerned that I may have broken
something else by doing so.


Thanks,
Geoff
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