RPM package querying after up2date

[JMBCV]

I ran up2date and installed the various upgrade
packages. Since I'm new to linux I wanted to try
and check the various packages after the upgrade
using rpm commands. My question is why does the
querying command list two versions? The old package
and the new show up. If I type rpm -q gnupg
I'll get:

gnupg-1.2.1-3
gnupg-1.2.1-4

I thouhgt rpm packages remove the old package.

[Roy W. Andersen]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 23:47:18 +0100, JMBCV ferociously grabbed a keyboard
and wrote:

> gnupg-1.2.1-3
> gnupg-1.2.1-4
>
> I thouhgt rpm packages remove the old package.

Only if you do rpm -i. If possible it will then install the
given package without removing the old one. If you use rpm -U it will
upgrade it instead. I don't know how up2date works as I prefer
using apt-get instead.

In some cases, having several versions of a package is necessary (mostly
for compatibility-issues with older applications I believe).

In your case though, you can probably remove the older version. You'll
need to supply the version as well though, so the command

rpm -e gnupg-1.2.1-3

should do the trick. There is however a possibility (and a rather strong
one at that) that doing so will remove some files belonging to the other
package as well - since the two versions are so close to eachother,
chances are most files overlap. What you can do then is simply reinstall
the version you want in (1.2.1-4 I assume) after you've uninstalled the
other one. Another possible solution is to just remove the older version
from the rpm database (using the --justdb switch to rpm -e), but this may
leave some files behind which will then belong to no packages. If you do
rpm -ql on both packages and compare the list output you'll see if there
are any such files quite easily (gnupg only has about 50 files).



Roy W. Andersen
--
removethis.ra@umpire.com / http://roy.netgoth.org/

"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power.
We have guided missiles and misguided men."
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

[Vwakes]

On Tue, 23 Sep 2003 JMBCV wrote:

>I ran up2date and installed the various upgrade packages. Since I'm new
>to linux I wanted to try and check the various packages after the
>upgrade using rpm commands.

I would be surprised if this is caused by updates done via up2date. The
most likely scenario that might cause this is:

- You already have gnupg-1.2.1-3
- And then you do 'rpm -ivh --force gnupg-1.2.1-4.XYZ.rpm

>My question is why does the querying command list two versions?

Coz there exists two versions in the rpm database. It exists only the DB
and not in the filesystem.

>The old package and the new show up. If I type rpm -q gnupg I'll get:
>
>gnupg-1.2.1-3
>gnupg-1.2.1-4

You can check whether the files from both pkgs are the same:

$ rpm -ql gnupg-1.2.1-3 >gnupg-13-files.txt
$ rpm -ql gnupg-1.2.1-4 >gnupg-14-files.txt

Both more or less will be the same. So it exists only in the db.

>I thouhgt rpm packages remove the old package.

From 'rpm' you should explicitly say "rpm -U" or "rpm -F". But up2date
does "rpm -U" if a package already exists, IIUC.

To solve, you should remove both versions using "rpm -e" and then
install the latest one.

V.