[Fedora-packaging] Re: rpm -i, "missing" file conflicts and brokenness with kmods

[Ian Pilcher]

Jack Neely wrote:
> We consider rpm -i only useful for the install path where there are no
> other kernel modules of that name installed on the system.  So, when no
> previous versions of a specific kernel module are installed and we use
> rpm -i to install one, there are no file conflicts.  The package is
> installed correctly.

That may be the typical usage, but there's nothing about RPM that
mandates this.  Different versions of the same package can happily
coexist as long as their files don't conflict.

For an example of this, look no further than the practice of keeping
older kernels around.  In this case, the "upgrade" is performed with
rpm -i (or its API equivalent); if rpm -U were used, the old kernel
would be automatically removed.

-- 
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Ian Pilcher                                        i.pilcher at comcast.net
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