I am reading in the documentation (maybe not where I should look?) the explanation of the rvload2 file format. However, it lists 8 fields per line where as my auto-generated rvload2 file has 9 fields instead, as highligthed below:
So In RV 4+ it appears that the number is the minimum version of RV that is required to run the package. If you check out the PACKAGE file for the associated package, does the value for the rv key exist?
When a package has a greater version number than the version of RV you are running, the package will not be loaded.
Thanks @Michael.Kessler, that was it, indeed the rv key is there. Dealing here with a classic case of undocumented in-house piece of software created by developers who left long ago…
At the same time, I’m sorry this wasn’t documented up in RV. It looks like it was added to help transition between versions where packages weren’t expected to be able to be loaded in an older version.
At the same time, do note that if you are refactoring, using the rvpkg command-line tool can handle most functions you might need, but if this is a targeted change, it probably isn’t worthwhile to move over :).