Warning: long. Summary: (1) yum isn't doing what I want with respect to updating packages that come in i386 and x86_64 architectures. (2) one example looks like a bug Background: I'm trying to install FC6 for x86_64 on my notebook (this is not going smoothly, but that is a topic for another time). I have an NFS server with a copy of all the updated RPMs. I'm trying to apply these updates. In the past, I've applied updates from the NFS server by doing: yum localupdate *.rpm (In the more distant past, I used rpm -Fv *.rpm but that didn't work well when updated packages had new dependencies.) Right now, this yum command is failing to do what I want. I think that this is a bug but it may be a feature. For example, I have kdegraphics for x86_66 installed: # rpm -qa --queryformat '%{NAME}-%{VERSION}-%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n' | grep kdegraphics kdegraphics-devel-3.5.4-1.fc6.x86_64 kdegraphics-devel-3.5.4-1.fc6.i386 kdegraphics-3.5.4-1.fc6.x86_64 I don't know why I had kdegraphics-devel for i386 installed. I've now removed it. The updates repository for x86_64 has two versions of kdegraphics: kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.x86_64.rpm I don't know why, but it ought to be harmless. It isn't. To me, harmless would mean that this command would do nothing, but that isn't the case: yum localupdate kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm Instead, here's what it proposes to do: ============================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================= Updating: kdegraphics i386 7:3.5.5-0.1.fc6 kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm 18 M Installing for dependencies: fribidi i386 0.10.7-5.1 core 53 k gphoto2 i386 2.2.0-2.1 core 1.4 M libexif i386 0.6.13-2 core 149 k libieee1284 i386 0.2.9-3.2.2 core 33 k sane-backends-libs i386 1.0.18-5.fc6 core 2.3 M Updating for dependencies: arts x86_64 8:1.5.5-0.1.fc6 updates 1.2 M kdebase x86_64 6:3.5.5-0.4.fc6 updates 29 M kdelibs x86_64 6:3.5.5-0.2.fc6 updates 18 M qt x86_64 1:3.3.7-0.1.fc6 updates 3.6 M Transaction Summary ============================================================================= Install 5 Package(s) Update 5 Package(s) Remove 0 Package(s) Why would it replace an x86_64 package with an i386 package? Given that it is doing so, why does it care at all about x86_64 libraries (like kdelibs and qt)? Curiouser and curiouser: these two commands act differently: yum localupdate kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.x86_64.rpm yum localupdate kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.x86_64.rpm kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm I would have expected yum to ignore order (and pick the newest best match). The first proposes to do this, a natural extension of above. This is a natural extension of what the previous just-i386 command proposed to do. I would rather that it realized that the x86_64 version trumped the i386 version (ie. closer to being an update). ============================================================================= Package Arch Version Repository Size ============================================================================= Updating: kdegraphics x86_64 7:3.5.5-0.1.fc6 kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.x86_64.rpm 19 M kdegraphics i386 7:3.5.5-0.1.fc6 kdegraphics-3.5.5-0.1.fc6.i386.rpm 18 M Installing for dependencies: fribidi i386 0.10.7-5.1 core 53 k gphoto2 i386 2.2.0-2.1 core 1.4 M libexif i386 0.6.13-2 core 149 k libieee1284 i386 0.2.9-3.2.2 core 33 k sane-backends-libs i386 1.0.18-5.fc6 core 2.3 M Updating for dependencies: arts x86_64 8:1.5.5-0.1.fc6 updates 1.2 M kdebase x86_64 6:3.5.5-0.4.fc6 updates 29 M kdegraphics-devel x86_64 7:3.5.5-0.1.fc6 updates 106 k kdelibs x86_64 6:3.5.5-0.2.fc6 updates 18 M qt x86_64 1:3.3.7-0.1.fc6 updates 3.6 M Transaction Summary ============================================================================= Install 5 Package(s) Update 7 Package(s) Remove 0 Package(s) The second balks with this error message: Error: Missing Dependency: kdegraphics = 7:3.5.4-1.fc6 is needed by package kdegraphics-devel What the heck? It is unfortunate that this dependency does not mention %{ARCH}. Even so, it makes no sense since both archs' packages will be present This looks like a bug to me. Is there a reasonable explanation? -- fedora-list mailing list fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list