Jeff, I finally understood your points about the difference between
INSTALLTID and INSTALLTIME. Actually, until now I was not even aware
that INSTALLTID is actually the unique transaction startup time.

I discussed the issue "to what value should ORIGINTIME be initialized:
INSTALLTIME or INSTALLTID" offline with Thomas Lotterer now and we
came to only one obvious solution which also makes a lot of sense for
both consistency and practical usefulness reasons: we need companion
ORIGINTIME _AND_ ORIGINTID and the initial value for ORIGINTIME is
INSTALLTIME and the initial value for ORIGINTID is INSTALLTID!

Find a proposed patch appended which implements this
and perhaps finally should make _both_ you _and_ me happy ;-)

                                       Ralf S. Engelschall
                                       rse@engelschall.com
                                       www.engelschall.com

Index: lib/depends.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /v/rpm/cvs/rpm/lib/depends.c,v
retrieving revision 1.386
diff -u -d -u -d -r1.386 depends.c
--- lib/depends.c	31 Jan 2008 18:46:28 -0000	1.386
+++ lib/depends.c	31 Jan 2008 21:32:07 -0000
@@ -419,6 +419,13 @@
 	    continue;

 	/* Snarf the original install time from older package(s). */
+	he->tag = RPMTAG_ORIGINTID;
+	xx = headerGet(oh, he, 0);
+	if (xx && he->p.ui32p != NULL) {
+	    if (p->originTid == 0 || p->originTid > he->p.ui32p[0])
+		p->originTid = he->p.ui32p[0];
+	    he->p.ptr = _free(he->p.ptr);
+	}
 	he->tag = RPMTAG_ORIGINTIME;
 	xx = headerGet(oh, he, 0);
 	if (xx && he->p.ui32p != NULL) {
Index: lib/psm.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /v/rpm/cvs/rpm/lib/psm.c,v
retrieving revision 2.282
diff -u -d -u -d -r2.282 psm.c
--- lib/psm.c	31 Jan 2008 07:26:12 -0000	2.282
+++ lib/psm.c	31 Jan 2008 21:32:07 -0000
@@ -1551,6 +1551,7 @@
     uint32_t tscolor = rpmtsColor(ts);
     uint32_t tecolor = rpmteColor(te);
     uint32_t installTime = (uint32_t) time(NULL);
+    uint32_t originTid = rpmteOriginTid(te);
     uint32_t originTime = rpmteOriginTime(te);
     int fc = rpmfiFC(fi);
     int xx = 1;
@@ -1571,8 +1572,15 @@
     xx = headerPut(fi->h, he, 0);

     /* Propagate the time that the package was first installed. */
+    if (originTid == 0)
+	originTid = rpmtsGetTid(ts);
+    he->tag = RPMTAG_ORIGINTID;
+    he->t = RPM_UINT32_TYPE;
+    he->p.ui32p = &originTid;
+    he->c = 1;
+    xx = headerPut(fi->h, he, 0);
     if (originTime == 0)
-	originTime = rpmtsGetTid(ts);
+	originTime = installTime;
     he->tag = RPMTAG_ORIGINTIME;
     he->t = RPM_UINT32_TYPE;
     he->p.ui32p = &originTime;
Index: lib/rpmte.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /v/rpm/cvs/rpm/lib/rpmte.c,v
retrieving revision 2.74
diff -u -d -u -d -r2.74 rpmte.c
--- lib/rpmte.c	30 Jan 2008 21:39:30 -0000	2.74
+++ lib/rpmte.c	31 Jan 2008 21:32:07 -0000
@@ -181,6 +181,7 @@
     p->replaced = NULL;

     p->pkgFileSize = 0;
+    p->originTid = 0;
     p->originTime = 0;

     p->PRCO = rpmdsNewPRCO(h);
@@ -328,6 +329,11 @@
     return (te != NULL ? te->pkgFileSize : 0);
 }

+uint32_t rpmteOriginTid(rpmte te)
+{
+    return (te != NULL ? te->originTid : 0);
+}
+
 uint32_t rpmteOriginTime(rpmte te)
 {
     return (te != NULL ? te->originTime : 0);
Index: lib/rpmte.h
===================================================================
RCS file: /v/rpm/cvs/rpm/lib/rpmte.h,v
retrieving revision 2.43
diff -u -d -u -d -r2.43 rpmte.h
--- lib/rpmte.h	30 Jan 2008 21:39:30 -0000	2.43
+++ lib/rpmte.h	31 Jan 2008 21:32:07 -0000
@@ -343,6 +343,14 @@
 	/*@*/;

 /** \ingroup rpmte
+ * Retrieve transaction start time that package was first installed.
+ * @param te		transaction element
+ * @return		origin time
+ */
+uint32_t rpmteOriginTid(rpmte te)
+	/*@*/;
+
+/** \ingroup rpmte
  * Retrieve time that package was first installed.
  * @param te		transaction element
  * @return		origin time
Index: rpmdb/rpmtag.h
===================================================================
RCS file: /v/rpm/cvs/rpm/rpmdb/rpmtag.h,v
retrieving revision 1.37
diff -u -d -u -d -r1.37 rpmtag.h
--- rpmdb/rpmtag.h	31 Jan 2008 07:26:12 -0000	1.37
+++ rpmdb/rpmtag.h	31 Jan 2008 21:32:08 -0000
@@ -412,7 +412,8 @@
     RPMTAG_SANITYCHECKPROG	= 1206, /* s */
     RPMTAG_FILESTAT		= 1207, /* s[] stat(2) from metadata extension*/
     RPMTAG_STAT			= 1208, /* s[] stat(2) from disk extension */
-    RPMTAG_ORIGINTIME		= 1209,	/* i */
+    RPMTAG_ORIGINTID		= 1209,	/* i */
+    RPMTAG_ORIGINTIME		= 1210,	/* i */

 /*@-enummemuse@*/
     RPMTAG_FIRSTFREE_TAG	/*!< internal */