[Fedora-legacy-list] Re: Force rpm upgrade?

[Martin Stricker]

Sorry for the delay, I've been quite busy this weekend.

Warren Togami wrote:
> Martin Stricker wrote:
> > Agreed. I see the benefit of upgrading rpm, but I also fear some of
> > the side effects.
> > -1
> 
> Please do not warn of side effects without giving concrete examples.
> We (the fedora.us team) have been grappling with these issues for
> more than a year now, and we are fully aware of the consequences of
> upgrading rpm. It is my personal opinion that RH8 especially is
> UNUSUABLE without a rpm upgrade, and it is almost entirely unfounded
> fear to not leave RH's released version that prevents the benefits of
> the stable upgrade. However if you have concrete examples of where
> this causes a great failure, please make it known.

I remember when Red Hat required me to upgrade rpm on RHL6.2 - it broke
some software (I don't know which from memory), and my selfmade install
CDs with all the updates did no longer work. I'm not sure if I just did
something wrong, but it definitely happened right after the RPM upgrade.
I don't want to run into such things again.

Generally I do not like updating a piece of software just to increase
it's version number or to get some feature (unless I *really* need that
feature). I need to validate any software change on my servers, and I
don't like that process... Remember some "ancient" computer wisdom:
Never touch a running system, and don't fix it if it ain't broken!

What benefits would I have from a rpm upgrade on RHL7.3, and why would I
need them?

> Also, are you aware that rpm.org has released 'official' updates to
> rpm which fixes the huge problems on RH8 and RH9?

I don't care much about RHL8.0 and RHL9, because some testing showed
that I better stay with RHL7.3 for the servers at work, and I always use
the sames OS on my home box (makes things easier). So if rpm is broken
for RHL8.0 and RHL9, fix it, but as long as rpm on RHL7.3 isn't broken,
don't touch it!

This, of course, is just my personal opinion. If you decide to go for an
rpm upgrade, I don't have much of a choice... ;-)

Best regards,
Martin Stricker
-- 
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