question about package conflicts

Dave Peterson dave_peterson at bigfix.com
Wed Feb 11 02:54:47 UTC 2009


> > I have a question about RPM package conflicts: Does RPM
> > view two packages as being in conflict whenever both
> > packages provide a file with the exact same pathname?
> > 
> 
> It's a bit complicated.
> 
> 1. if the checksums of the files are identical then it is not 
> a conflict
> 2. if the checksums of the files are NOT identical, but they are
> binaries (elf) then if the two owning packages are of different (but
> compatible) colors then there is not a conflict. 
> 
> I think that's the majority of the file conflict behavior but I'm sure
> there are things I've missed.

Hmm... I guess it probably also matters whether the files in
question are actually directories.  For instance, examining the
output from "rpm -ql" for some installed packages on a running
system, I observe that all of the following packages list the
path /usr/share/applications in their output:

    filesystem-2.4.0-1
    kdelibs-3.5.4-16.el5
    system-config-httpd-1.3.3.3-1.el5
    gdm-2.16.0-46.el5

I assume it would be a mistake to conclude that all of these
packages therefore conflict with each other.

Let's say I'm writing a C program that takes as input a bunch
of RPM files.  My goal is to examine the packages using RPM
library calls, and produce output indicating which packages
conflict with each other.  What would be the preferred way of
doing this?

Thanks,
Dave


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