yum annoyances

[seth vidal]

> Case 1: A package is install but, now, has been deleted from the 
> development/update tree and the installed package blocks updates.  The 
> current answer is to manually remove the package (yum remove or rpm -e) if, 
> and only if, you know that package was deleted .. the recent case of dbus-qt.

> Would it be possible to have some metadata which would flag to yum that the 
> package needs to be removed.

We have that, it is called an obsolete. However, if nothing else
obsoletes the package there is nothing we could or should do. To have an
arbitrary 'remove this' element in the metadata would just be
explosively dangerous. I can see the typo of glibc from glib. It would
be like a million machines cried out and then were instantly silenced.



> Case 2:  This is similar to case 1.  In this case, an older version of a 
> package is in the development/update tree,  The currently installed packages 
> include one or more packages which are a "more recent version" but one that 
> has problems ... therefore, we need to "roll back" the package.  Again, this 
> can be handled manually via yum remove/install or using rpm --oldpackage if 
> you know that the situation exists.

I've never seen that happen in the update tree. 

In the development tree, sure - that's what happens in rawhide. Shit
breaks.

-sv