No desktop after updates

[TrevorH]

Which is a really bad idea generally except in emergencies. The better way to preserve dependent packages is to use the yum shell command to remove one set of packages and install another which supplies the same dependencies.

[bonedome]

Hello
I don't really want to hijack this thread (I can start a new one if need be) but could you explain why using the rpm command is a really bad idea, I've been using it for years with no ill effects whatsoever, other than yum complaining that the rpm database has been altered outside of yum the next time you run it, the database seems to then be rebuilt automatically.

use the yum shell command to remove one set of packages and install another which supplies the same dependencies.

the way I'm reading that is to allow yum to remove all the dependencies and then reinstall them.
Could you give an example of the yum shell command to better understand how to use it.

[TrevorH]

It's not so much the use of the rpm command - although if you look, since CentOS 6 days, yum has been complaining about "rpm database changed outside of yum control" - so the yum authors obviously don't think it's a good idea either. The really bad idea is using rpm -e ---nodeps.

As for yum shell, as a made up example, say you wanted to replace mariadb with mysql so you install a repo that supplies a copy of mysql (we ship mariadb) and then run

Code: Select all

# yum shell
remove mariadb-libs
install mysql-libs
run

If you'd just run yum remove mariadb-libs it would take out postfix with it as it's dependent on mariadb-libs. Using yum shell and installing a different package that supplies the same requirement (libmysqlclient.so.18), you can remove mariadb-libs and install its replacement in one go without removing postfix.

You don't need yum shell very often but when you do, it's extremely useful. For a real world example of when it might be useful, try looking at viewtopic.php?p=194747#p194747 where people had installed a foreign copy of openssl on CentOS 6 and then got into a mess trying to yum update afterwards.