[Yum] future stuff, again (update/install)

[Troy Dawson]

seth vidal wrote:
> Hi all,
> 2. would like to stabilize/finalize what people would like yum update vs
> yum install to do - this vis-a-vis the discussion from last week that
> that Connie brought up.
> 

I never quite figured out what the end result of that was, and since I never 
threw in my two cents here goes.  This is what I think it should be and why.

yum update <package>
(package not installed) nothing - but say that the package isn't installed
(package installed can be updated) update the package

yum install <package>
(package not installed) install the package
(package installed can be updated) update the package

Reasons
update - just too easy to glob the whole distribution.
Getting into the head of a user, I am going to sometime say to myself 'I want 
to update something but don't remember the syntax, I just put a * in there to 
be sure I update everything'.  It will come up with a huge list of things, and 
they will think, 'Well, I knew my machine was out of date, so I'll just say yes'

install - The person was planning on installing the package that was on the 
server, so if they already have an older version of the package they really 
want the package that is on the server, so update the package.
(A side note.  Yes, it is just as easy to glob the whole distribution, but if 
the user says to install *, there isn't anyway excuse for them ... though 
they'll try to think of one.)
There are plenty of instances where a user might want to update a group of 
things, but some of them are installed, but the others arn't.  An example 
would be doing yum install kde* - half of the packages might need to be 
upgraded, but the other half he wants installed.

Troy
-- 
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Troy Dawson  dawson at fnal.gov  (630)840-6468
Fermilab  ComputingDivision/OSS  CSI Group
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