[Yum] Yum on x86_64 help

[Jeff Putsch]

On Dec 3, 2003, at 10:25 AM, seth vidal wrote:

>> For what it's worth, I've patched archwork.py as described in
>> https://lists.dulug.duke.edu/pipermail/yum/2003-November/002874.html
>>
>> How do I tell yum to install the i[36]86 version of the glibc RPM
>> package?
>
> hmm so you need to specifically install a certain architecture of the
> various libraries. This is not something that is being handled at the
> moment.

Exactly. I've not, yet, looked at the source beyond the small patch 
mentioned above. I am willing to spend some effort to make this work 
and would need a bit of guidance to get going. It seems to me the 
following is a stab at the needed behavior:

    o  Some way to specify a non-default architecture to install for 
when on
       a multi-architecture platform (like x86_64). Perhaps a --arch= 
option.

    o  Once the architecture is specified, then select the package that 
best
       meets the requirements for that architecture AND is compatible 
with the
       original architecture. For example on the x86_64, if --arch=i386 
is used
       and packageX has x86_64, i386, and i686 versions available, then
       use the i686 in preference to the i386 version.

    o  Figure out dependencies in a similar fashion, making sure the
       requested architecture is satisfied for all the dependency 
checks. That
       is do not install x86_64 packages when trying to satisfy the 
dependency
       checks for an i386 request on an x86_64 platform.

    o  Make sure none of the packages to be installed by the request are
       flagged as explicitly conflicting with already installed packages
       on the x86_64 platform. E.g. if packZ_x86_64 and packZ_i386 
explicitly
       conflict with one another, the installation request cannot 
succeed.

Does that make sense as a rough outline of what I'd like (perhaps need) 
to see happen? I'm willing to discuss the exact behavior more and help 
code if needed.

>> I also need both 64 and 32 bit versions of the XFree86 libs and
>> everything they depend on... I know I can use rpm to install them
>> manually, but I'm investigating YUM to avoid this...
>
> I'm not familiar with the build on RHEL but is the above even possible
> using rpm from the command line?

Quite possible. In fact that's how I'm installing them now. 
Unfortunately, it is leading to the lack of dependency resolution 
problems that are having me look at YUM in the first place :).

Thanks,

Jeff.