yum question, reverting to old packages.

[Richard Hally]

Jesse Keating wrote:
> On Sat, 2006-09-02 at 12:32 -0400, Richard Hally wrote:
>> Or maybe it does an uninstall of the current package then an install
>> of 
>> the "old" package. Perhaps in doesn't make any difference wrt yum,
>> yum 
>> could take advantage of the --oldpackage capability of RPM or it
>> could 
>> work by doing remove <current> - install <old> and if either 
>> --oldpackage or the two step approach can't be done (say for 
>> dependencies) notify the user.
>> But since we are speculating about RPM here, perhaps someone who 
>> actually knows can help us out. 8-) 
> 
> Ah, but the uninstall scriptlets are different than the install
> scriptlets.  So again, whats done in install may not be undone in
> removal or oldpackage.  The point is that like --force and like
> --nodeps, the results can be pretty bad, and yum would rather not make
> assumptions about the users system and intent.  I applaud that as I've
> seen far too many users hork themselves by thinking they were doing
> something smart with --force --nodeps.  If you really know what you're
> doing wrt these flags, you can do it by hand.
> 
> 
Yup, I agree that --force and/or --nodeps are a Bad Idea. I'm suggesting 
that --oldpackage is different.
Also, --erase <current pkg> followed by --install <previous pkg> should 
not produce "bad results". If it does, there is something wrong with the 
  particular package design.

Richard