[Yum-devel] stupid questions

[Michael Stenner]

I agree with Ryan and Michael on both counts.  My explanations below.

On Fri, Jun 18, 2004 at 02:32:58AM -0400, seth vidal wrote:
> some use questions that dictate how I'll write some stuff
> 
> user says:
>  yum update foo-1.1-1.i386
>   does this mean: 
>   please update my system to this package version, specifically.
>     OR
>   please update the installed package foo-1.1-1.i386 to whatever update
> is available

For the vast majority of packages and situations, the former is much
more useful.  One rarely cares where when is coming from.  Most often,
you want to specify the target state of the system.  (you know this,
of course... I'm just explaining my reasoning)

> additionally:
>  if a user says:
>  yum install bar
>  
> they have installed bar-1.1-1.i386
> the repository only has installed bar-1.0-1.i386
> 
> should yum:
>    happily downgrade the package, since the user clearly asked to
> install bar, no matter to the version?
>    OR
>   exit and say "the only available version of bar is a lesser version
> than the installed version of bar, if you'd like to install the lesser
> version please completely specify the version in the command"

This is more difficult, but not much.  I think the latter is
desirable.  Sure, the user DID ask to install bar, but maybe because
he/she doesn't remember that he installed it from a downloaded rpm a
month ago.  I've done that many times: "yum install bar" only to be
told I already have it.  I would be annoyed if that resulted in a
downgrade, especially because I would then want to go track down the
version I just had installed.

However, it would be nice if yum spit out both full versions to fully
inform you.  Then, you could update/install to that specific version
if that's what you really want.  I don't like the idea of offering
yes/no in this case because it's an exotic request and the explicit
syntax is available.
					-Michael
-- 
  Michael D. Stenner                            mstenner at ece.arizona.edu
  ECE Department, the University of Arizona                 520-626-1619
  1230 E. Speedway Blvd., Tucson, AZ 85721-0104                 ECE 524G