rpm naming rules

[Anne POSSOZ <Anne Possoz Epfl Ch>]

Hi all,

Is there a clear documentation for the naming convention of rpm
files? What is the convention for appending letters to the
version number? There are sometimes "pre2" (kde) or "a" or "beta5"
or others. How do we find out which one is the more recent one?

I try to use the script from
http://wwwcache.ja.net/dev/kickstart/KickStart-HOWTO-14.html
(after having patched it for our site) but "version"pre2 is 
always newer than the non "pre" version. Willing to patch that
perl script, I would like to know the conventions.

Also, when there is an i386, i586 and 686 rpm, should I keep
all of them? I think yes. And how do I know which rpm was really
installed on my computer?

Thanks
-- 

                    Anne Possoz
                    http://slsun2.epfl.ch/possoz.html
                    Service Informatique Central
                    Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
                    1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)
                    Tel : (41/21) 693.22.49