question about package conflicts

[seth vidal]

On Tue, 2009-02-10 at 18:54 -0800, Dave Peterson wrote:
> > > 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?
> 

Setup an rpm transaction and test it.


-sv