RPM- two packages installed

[Rick Stevens]

On Thu, 2006-02-23 at 12:49 -0700, redhat at buglecreek.com wrote:
> We are required to scan our networks for current patch levels.  The
> automated tool flags packages that need to be updated.  For example, it
> said that it is required to update gnutls to the current version
> (gnutls-1.0.20-3.2.1).  Doing a "rpm -qa | grep gnutls" outputs 
> "gnutls-1.0.20-3.2.1" and also "gnutls-1.0.20-3".  I assume the scanner
> is not smart enough to realize that the newer version is in fact
> installed and is simply seeing that the older version is installed. My
> question is how does two versions of the same package get installed?  I
> know that if you do a rpm -i "newer version of pkg" it will install the
> new one and leave the old one, but is there any other way that this can
> happen?

If the "%post" script craps out when installing a package, the removal
of old stuff may not happen.  The sam is true if either the "%preun" or
"%postun" scripts fail on the old package.

>   I am seeing this quit a lot and am starting to wonder if
> someone is installing new packages with rpm -i instead of rpm -U.  Also,
> running up2date (with default config) should not leave the old package?
> Correct?
> This examples is on a Redhat ES4 install.

You are correct about the "-i" and it may be that someone is doing what
you say.  They may also be doing a "-f" to force an install.

By default, up2date is supposed to do "-U" with the exception of the
kernel binary RPMs.  This is all in the /etc/sysconfig/rhn/up2date file,
specifically the "pkgsToInstallNotUpdate" list.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-           If it's stupid and it works...it ain't stupid!           -
----------------------------------------------------------------------