On 11/27/2010 04:38 PM John R Pierce wrote:

On 11/27/10 12:44 PM, ken wrote:

...

This would seem like a bug... or why is yum trying to install package versions which are already installed?

this most frequently happens when you mix dependencies of different yum repositories. I noted .rf in your output, RPM Forge, this has in my experience caused conflicts with EPEL.

John, I agree... that's pretty much when it happens (...not all the time though).

What I don't understand is why yum can't see simply PACKAGE and VERSION and see they're the same as what's already installed. That seems to me to be a design flaw in yum.

On 11/28/2010 01:58 PM William Hooper wrote:

On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 3:44 PM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:

...

# yum update ... --> Running transaction check --> Processing Dependency: gmime = 2.2.10-5.el5.centos for package: gmime-sharp ---> Package gmime20.i386 0:2.2.26-1.el5.rf set to be updated --> Finished Dependency Resolution gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos.i386 from installed has depsolving problems --> Missing Dependency: gmime = 2.2.10-5.el5.centos is needed by package gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos.i386 (installed) Error: Missing Dependency: gmime = 2.2.10-5.el5.centos is needed by package gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos.i386 (installed) ...

# rpm -q gmime gmime-sharp gmime-2.2.10-5.el5.centos gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos

This would seem like a bug... or why is yum trying to install package versions which are already installed?

You need to take a closer look at what yum is trying to install. This message is telling you yum won't update the package because it will break a dependency on another installed package.

yum's trying to install gmime20. This doesn't exist on my system.

What dependency would break by installing it?

I would guess that you are either mixing repos, or one of the repos isn't internally consistent.

So is gmime-2.2.10-5.el5.centos on SF different from gmime-2.2.10-5.el5.centos on other repos?

Is gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos on SF different from gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos on other repos?

I notice that you are using RPMForge, did you see the changes going on there with RPMForge-Extras? http://lists.rpmforge.net/pipermail/users/2010-November/003411.html

This page is quite vague, so much so that it's of little help.

If the problem persists you will probably want to take it to the RPMForge list (and provide the full yum output)

On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 5:12 PM, William Hooper whooperhsd@gmail.com wrote:

On Sun, Nov 28, 2010 at 4:00 PM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:

...

...

You need to take a closer look at what yum is trying to install.  This message is telling you yum won't update the package because it will break a dependency on another installed package.

yum's trying to install gmime20.  This doesn't exist on my system.

What dependency would break by installing it?

Looking at the RPMForge spec file for gmime20, it obsoletes any gmime lower that it's version. You are trying to install gmime20.i386 0:2.2.26-1.el5.rf, which will remove gmime-2.2.10-5.el5.centos. However, your currently installed gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos requires gmime-2.2.10-5.el5.centos. You need to either remove gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos or find an updated version that will work with gmime20.i386 0:2.2.26-1.el5.rf.

I thought this seemed familiar:

http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/2010-March/092358.html

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:33 AM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:

Where was a message telling me that?  (In my original post I included the relevant output.)  There wasn't anything there which said the install of gmime20 necessitated removing another, different package.

I'll try to explain, but part of it just comes from experience.

---> Package gmime20.i386 0:2.2.26-1.el5.rf set to be updated

This is the package being installed.

--> Finished Dependency Resolution gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos.i386 from installed has depsolving problems --> Missing Dependency: gmime = 2.2.10-5.el5.centos is needed by package gmime-sharp-2.2.10-5.el5.centos.i386 (installed)

The "from installed" means the that package in question (gmime-sharp) is already installed. The assumption I made, since you provided the output saying that gmime of an appropriate version was installed, is that yum is saying the gmime version needed would be removed. Checking the spec file and finding the obsoletes confirms that.

Yum used to give similar messages when you tried to "yum erase" a package that would break dependencies. Newer versions of yum just walk down the tree and offer to remove half the system, instead.

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 11:13 AM, ken gebser@mousecar.com wrote:

The key to the puzzle for me was that, to install gmime20, it was necessary to remove gmime.  I never would have guessed that... seems counter-intuitive to me... and the only way to find that out is to look in the spec file????!!  Or is there another way?

I believe if you tell yum to be more verbose it will tell you when one package obsoletes another, but I can't remember off the top of my head if you need "-v" or something with "-d".

What in the spec file told you that?

The Obsoletes line:

Obsoletes: gmime <= %{version}-%{release}

Also... I know to look in the SPEC file by installing just the src, but is there a shorter (another, better) way to look at it?

RPMForge is usually pretty good about having the spec files in their svn:

http://svn.rpmforge.net/viewvc/rpmforge/

However, I didn't see one for gmime20, so I just installed the srpm.

This is all academic to me at this point... just want to learn a bit more about RPMs if you're up for sharing wisdom.

No problem. I've learned it by reading mailing lists and messing around myself.