Problem with glibc update

[Rick Stevens]

William Hooper wrote:
> Rick Stevens said:
> 
> 
>>The classic circular dependency issue.  I thought yum handled this better.
>>
>>The fix is to install the common bit with the "--nodeps" option to rpm,
>>THEN install the regular glibc bits:
>>
>>	rpm -Fvh --nodeps glibc-common*.rpm
> 
> 
> AAK!  Danger!

No, not at all.  rpm often can't sort out circular dependencies when
you're trying to install a bunch of updates.  You must break the cycle
somehow, and --nodeps is the way to do it.  Remember that up2date (and
I suppose yum and apt) look at these things and call rpm with
appropriate flags to break the loop.  I'm just doing it manually.

[snip]
> In this case the packages aren't downloaded (they aren't even on the
> upgrade list) so nothing like this is advisable.  Of course "--nodeps" is
> a giveaway that you are trying to fight the system instead of work with
> it.

I hadn't realized that the download hadn't occurred, which is what
caused that issue.  However, "--nodeps" is there for a reason.  I've had
to use this mechanism a lot, as we often have to update a bunch of
servers with a bunch of updates because our clients are reticent to
"risk" automatic updates which may break their applications.  So, I
build CDs with all of the current patches on them and "rpm -Fvh *.rpm".
When a circular dependency crops up (glibc and snmp being two of the
more common ones), I force the issue by "--nodeps"ing the common module,
then updating it's "child" immediately thereafter.  This is, of course,
on servers that are not active (in run level 1) and not on the net.

It may not be what you'd do, but I've been doing it for years and it
works.  "If it's stupid and it works...it ain't stupid!"
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-          Consciousness: that annoying time between naps.           -
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