Fedora 40 egl-wayland version string

Is this a normal version string… or at least not unheard of?

egl-wayland.x86_64               1.1.17^20240919gitf5d9c69-1.fc40        updates

Just happened to notice this when I did “dnf check-upgrade” and don’t believe I ever recall seeing a version string with a caret (^) in it.

The version of egl-wayland I currently have installed has a very similar version string to the most recent version, but without the caret.

# dnf list egl-wayland.x86_64
Last metadata expiration check: 0:36:38 ago on Sun 29 Sep 2024 11:08:20 AM PDT.
Installed Packages
egl-wayland.x86_64           1.1.17-2.20240828git2d5ecff.fc40           @updates
Available Packages
egl-wayland.x86_64           1.1.17^20240919gitf5d9c69-1.fc40           updates

Maybe a caret in the version string is perfectly fine, it just seems odd and also seems possible some things (programs/scripts/apps) that try to parse the version string (for whatever purpose) might be confused. It kind of feels like the version string is being overloaded to contain maybe a bit too much information.

PS. The version string for the most recent version of egl-gbm also contains a caret, whereas the version I have installed is more “normal”.

# dnf list egl-gbm.x86_64
Last metadata expiration check: 0:40:13 ago on Sun 29 Sep 2024 11:08:20 AM PDT.
Installed Packages
egl-gbm.x86_64            2:1.1.2-1.fc40                                @updates
Available Packages
egl-gbm.x86_64            2:1.1.2^20240919gitb24587d-3.fc40             updates

It was built from source from a from the git repository from commit:
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/egl-wayland/blob/rawhide/f/egl-wayland.spec

1 Like

OK… so… does that explain the caret (^) in the version string?

Looking at that source, I see where the caret comes from:

Version:        1.1.17%{!?tag:^%{date}git%{shortcommit0}}

What I’m wondering is if that’s normal? Or maybe did someone edit the file and unintentionally change the ‘-’ to a ‘^’? Or maybe the ‘^’ was intentional and has a special meaning?

Here’s mine from F41 beta:

spionage724@Spinesnap:~$ sudo dnf list egl-wayland.x86_64
[sudo] password for espionage724: 
Updating and loading repositories:
Repositories loaded.
Available packages
egl-wayland.x86_64 1.1.17^20240919gitf5d9c69-1.fc41 updates-testing
egl-wayland.x86_64 1.1.17^20240919gitf5d9c69-1.fc41 fedora
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Ah… That explains it. It’s good to know it was intentional and has a purpose.
Thank you.