Duplicate packages - what do I do?

[Erik P. Olsen]

awrobinson at nc.rr.com wrote:
> OK, now that I know the duplicates are supposed to be there, any harm in
> leaving them all? Any benefit?
> 
> I'm having trouble getting a 'yum upgrade' to complete. It's probably a
> different issue, but I'll ask since it's marginally related. Yum knows
> the difference between the i386 and x86_64 packages, doesn't it?
> 
> Andrew
> 
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> awrobinson at nc.rr.com wrote:
> 
>>On a new install of FC4 x86_64, I find that I'm getting duplicate
> 
> 
> It's normal: one is i386 arch for 32-bit programs and one is 64-bit.
> 
> For example, arts:
> 
> # rpm -q --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION} %{ARCH}\n" arts
> arts-1.5.1 x86_64
> arts-1.5.1 i386
> 
> You can nuke just one arch by, eg,
> 
> #rpm -e arts.i386

I think you get a problem if you install for x86_64, because you get all 
the x86_64 packages when you may not be interested in all of them. For 
example firefox to which the plug-ins (or at least many of them) do not 
work with the x86_64 version. You will the have to remove the x86_64 
version and install the i386 version. There is no way during the 
installation phase afaik to select whichever version you want.

And when you have finally installed the system with the mix of versions 
you want what are you then supposed to do with the unused duplecates. Is 
it safe to keep them or should you nuke them?

-- 
Regards,
Erik P. Olsen