On Thursday, June 23, 2011 02:24:43 PM Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
[snip good info]
> Other reasons are similar things.. say the upstream beta had version
> 1.0.1-2 but it turns out that it breaks scripts or something and they
> need to put in final version 1.0.0-2. The beta tester will have a
> "newer" version than what was in the final release.

The difficulty with packages with identical NEVR but different contents is the problem 'yum distro-sync full' was meant to solve.  While distro-sync is available in yum 3.2.29, the 'full' option (which compares package checksums and issues a 'yum reinstall' for packages that are installed with the correct NEVR but are different will get refreshed) requires a 3.4.x yum.

A 3.4.x yum is (or should be by now) in the CentOS testing repo for CentOS 5; the patch to add 'full' might apply cleanly to yum 3.2.29 (current upstream 6.1 yum).

So the process to 'upgrade' from a beta to the GA would involve installing the new release RPM with the repo info, and then issuing 'yum distro-sync full' which in theory with upgrade and downgrade as needed to get you in sync with the current repo state, and witht he 'full' option it will reinstall packages whose NEVR matches but whose checksums do not.