[Yum] Using yum for system upgrades

[Jim McConnell]

Hello;

I'm fairly new to using yum, but so far the documentation has been 
straightforward, and I've experienced no problems.  I've got a Red Hat 
7.2 system, that has recently become mine to maintain.  I easily updated 
the system to use the latest 7.2 updates.

I'm now interested in upgrading from RH7.2 to FC1.  I understand I need 
to grab the FC1 version of yum and fedora-release prior to attempting 
this, and add them to the system via "rpm -Uvh".

I haven't attempted this yet, but:

1. Won't this fail because of a dependency on a later version of rpm,
    and perhaps other things as well?

2. Due to the above problem, should I step from RH7.2 -> RH8 -> RH9 ->
    FC1?  This seems like a huge waste of time, yet much safer.  Given
    the choice, I'll choose safety.

3. How can I see what is going to happen prior to committing to "yum
    upgrade"?  I'd REALLY like to see that.  I feel comfortable stepping
    through the versions, but I'd prefer to know what is about to happen
    before it does. ;)

Thanks to the yum devel team for their efforts, and all those who donate
their bandwidth to public repositories.

-Jim

-- 
Jim McConnell <jim at mcconnell.net>