[BlueOnyx:21452] Re: Multilib version problems found

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Maurice,

> rpm -e --justdb glibc-common-2.17-196.el7
> 
> But that last one spits out an error:
> 
> # rpm -e --justdb glibc-common-2.17-196.el7
> error: Failed dependencies:
>     glibc-common = 2.17-196.el7 is needed by (installed)
> glibc-2.17-196.el7.i686
> 
> 
> So out of interest:
> 
> 
> # rpm --query glibc
> glibc-2.17-157.el7_3.5.x86_64
> glibc-2.17-196.el7.i686

I'm not a big fan of "rpm -query ..." in this context. It only gives a
partial picture as there are often components that are split into
multiple RPMs. I rather use "rpm -qa" to get the entire RPM database
listed, grep it or what I want to see and then sort it:

# rpm -qa | grep glibc | sort
glibc-2.17-196.el7.x86_64
glibc-common-2.17-196.el7.x86_64
glibc-devel-2.17-196.el7.x86_64
glibc-headers-2.17-196.el7.x86_64

In our example removing glibc-2.17-196 from the RPM database will cause
complains, because glibc-common of the same version number has it listed
as requirement.

This is the point where a little "violence" cannot be avoided and I tell
you why this is OK in this case after I mention the command. Try this:

rpm -e --justdb --nodeps glibc-common-2.17-196.el7

The --nodeps tells RPM to ignore dependencies. Usually this is dangerous
and unhealthy, as it might remove things that are crucial for the system
to work. However: With --justdb we also make sure that no actual files
get removed and we just remove it from the RPM database. Hence this is
safe in this scenario.

Additionally: Once we have removed this conflict from the RPM database,
we run "yum update" to fetch and properly install this very RPM again -
and this time hopefully correctly.

But yes: The YUM update will still complain that our dependencies aren't
fully in order (our glibc doesn't have the same version as the
glibc-common!), but unless there are other lingering problems with other
duplicate RPM database entries it the yum update should go through.

So please try this and if you get stuck again on something else, let me
know.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber