[mdlug] Package update question

[Michael ORourke]

I just found this plugin for yum.  It sounds like exactly what I'm looking for.

###From the website
  Allowdowngrade Plugin

The core Yum package manager does not have the functionality to let users downgrade a package. This is a design choice to favor robustness over the additional functionality. Unlike package updates, downgrades are not tested usually and hence may not have the desired effect. However advanced users would still find this feature useful to recover out of a broken update. This plugin adds the ability to perform downgrades of packages in Fedora. This plugin is not installed by default. For installing it, use the following command or from the Applications menu use Add/Remove Software".

su -c 'yum install yum-allowdowngrade'

You can use this plugin doing a update by specifying the following command line argument.

su -c 'yum update -allow-downgrade'
###End

Reference:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Docs/Drafts/SoftwareManagementGuide/CustomizingYum#Allowdowngrade_Plugin

-Mike


-----Original Message-----
>From: Robert Meier <list1c30fe42 at bellsouth.net>
>Sent: Nov 19, 2008 12:54 AM
>To: mdlug at mdlug.org
>Subject: Re: [mdlug] Package update question
>
>Michael, Ray, Greg,
>
>>> ... Then you do an update via yum on the development server,
>>> before updating the production server,
>>> but find out that one of the updates breaks an application. 
>>> Assuming that you have identified the package that is
>>> causing the problem, how do you backout just that one
>>> package? ...
>> I would not bother with uninstalling the application. If yum here is a 
>> front end to rpm I would obtain an rpm of an earlier, preferably 
>> desired, version and do:
>>    $ rpm -ivh --force package.xx.yy.zz.rpm
>> to force installation of the old version.
>
>IMHO, this is the major advantage that yum introduced,
>compared to apt, and most other "smarter" auto-update systems.
>
>Basing the installation on rpm's which are usually (and always should be)
>reversible (with no package cooperation required),
>you should always be able to uninstall a broken, malicious, or simply
>undesired package completely.
>
>Concurring,
>-- 
>Bob
>
> "Destruction is *easy*. Even stupid people and weather formations can
>    do it. If you think you're so cool, try *improving* something."
>	      -- Ray Ingles 1997
>
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