[Yum] Removing obsolete packages from install transaction

[seth vidal]

On Wed, 2006-11-22 at 11:47 -0800, Ed Swierk wrote:
> In this scenario I have two repositories: an FC4 mirror and a repo
> with homegrown packages.  I am using yum (2.4.1) to install a system
> from scratch from these two repos.
> 
> The MySystem package requires all the packages I want on the system,
> including things like initscripts and python as well as other
> homegrown packages.  I install the system by running yum install
> MySystem.
> 
> Everything is hunky dory, until I decide I want to replace a Fedora
> package like udev with a homegrown one, MyUdev.  I drop MyUdev into
> the repo and add it to the MySystem requires.  So now things look like
> this:
> 
> MySystem
> Requires: initscripts, bash, python, MyUdev, ...
> 
> initscripts
> Requires: udev
> 
> MyUdev
> Obsoletes: udev
> Provides: udev
> 
> Now when I run yum install MyUdev, yum tries to install both udev and
> MyUdev, which of course fails due to file conflicts.
> 
> The only way I can convince yum to ignore udev is to explicitly
> install MyUdev, e.g. yum install MySystem MyUdev.  But having to list
> a bunch of packages on the command line defeats the purpose of the
> MySystem package.
> 
> Is there some way to convince yum to kick an obsolete package out of
> an install transaction if dependencies are otherwise satisfied?

yes, use a marginally recent version of yum. 2.4.1 didn't do that but
the more recent ones do.

moreover fc4 isn't supported by fedora anymore - you would want to get
to something with security updates. Might I suggest FC6?

-sv