ALPM-EPOCH(7)

📦 version 0.13.0, in arch rolling

✨ NAME ✨

okay so welcome to epoch — manual page 7 of the Miscellaneous Information Manual, bestie 💅 — and it's literally the version prefix that forces a higher version consideration for ALPM based packages. periodt.

🎀 DESCRIPTION 🎀

so epoch is a version format, and the whole vibe is that it gets used as a prefix to pkgver inside a composite version string ✨. you'll see it in build scripts or in file formats for package data description or reproduction, and its whole job is to say: "this composite version is to be considered newer than one without an epoch component, or newer than one with a lower epoch component." that's it, that's the flex 🔥.

and why do we care?? because it lets package maintainers release downgraded versions of a package if needed 😭👑. iconic behavior honestly.

the epoch value itself is represented by a non-negative integer, and if it's unset it's considered to default to '0'.

when you shove it into a composite version string, epoch is directly followed by a ':' sign and then the pkgver 🫶:

<epoch>:<pkgver>

and the sorting tea ☕: if two composite version strings get sorted, they're sorted first based on their epoch component, and only afterwards based on their pkgver component. so like, don't come for the pkgver first, it's not that girl in this situation.

general rule, bestie, write it down: epoch > pkgver. 🧚

🌸 EXAMPLES 🌸

💖 epoch ate and left no crumbs

the explicit 1 epoch component in the right hand composite version string overrules the implicit 0 epoch component of the left hand one. and since the epoch takes precedence, 1:0.9.0 is considered "newer" than 1.0.0 even though the upstream version represented by the pkgver component is older 🤯.

"1.0.0" < "1:0.9.0"

💖 same pkgver, different era

composite version strings with the same pkgver component are also sorted according to their epoch component first. no cap.

"1:1.0.0" < "2:1.0.0"

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

the group chat you should also be in, fr fr:

okay that's the whole page, mwah 💋 — this was page 7 of the Miscellaneous Information Manual, and yes she's still serving (7) energy at the bottom where the footer lives 🌈⭐. go read alpm-pkgver(7) next, i'm obsessed with her. 🍓

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