I noticed recently that module packages seemed to have some goop stored in the DistTag metadata field. This is a problem, because it conflicts with the general use of the DistTag in distributions that are using it.

Some history here: the DistTag metadata field was created almost a decade ago to solve the problem of everyone labeling their packages different ways (Mageia/Mandriva uses %mkrel <NUM>, RH/Fedora uses <NUM>%{?dist}, and so on). This usage was adopted by Mandriva and ALT Linux, as well as a few other minor distributions.

Today, OpenMandriva and ALT Linux use the DistTag as an extra property for version comparison. Instead of just EVR (as Fedora does), they have EVRD. That is, given the same EVR, something with a higher DistTag will win in an upgrade scenario. This is exactly the same model that is supported by Fedora's <NUM>%{?dist} model.

Recently, work is going on in the rpm project to try to upstream this work so that it can be used by all distributions. Once it is upstreamed in some form, then the usage of DistTag in modules will immediately break everything.

I implore you folks to drop your usage of the DistTag and find another way to encode your module information.