Upgrading - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Note
Notice that we used the package namefoo, not the name of the original package
filefoo-1.0-1.i386.rpm. To uninstall a package, replace foo with the actual package
name of the original package.
You can encounter a dependency error when uninstalling a package if another installed package
depends on the one you are trying to remove. For example:
error: Failed dependencies:
foo is needed by (installed) bar-2.0.20-3.i386.rpm
To make RPM ignore this error and uninstall the package anyway (which may break the package
dependent on it) use the --nodeps option.

10.2.4. Upgrading

Upgrading a package is similar to installing one. Type the following command at a shell prompt:
rpm -Uvh foo-2.0-1.i386.rpm
As part of upgrading a package, RPM automatically uninstalls any old versions of the foo package.
Note that -U will also install a package even when there are no previous versions of the package
installed.
Tip
It is not advisable to use the -U option for installing kernel packages, because RPM
replaces the previous kernel package. This does not affect a running system, but if the
new kernel is unable to boot during your next restart, there would be no other kernel to
boot instead.
Using the -i option adds the kernel to your GRUB boot menu (/etc/grub.conf).
Similarly, removing an old, unneeded kernel removes the kernel from GRUB.
Because RPM performs intelligent upgrading of packages with configuration files, you may see a
message like the following:
saving /etc/foo.conf as /etc/foo.conf.rpmsave
This message means that changes you made to the configuration file may not be forward compatible
with the new configuration file in the package, so RPM saved your original file and installed a new one.
You should investigate the differences between the two configuration files and resolve them as soon
as possible, to ensure that your system continues to function properly.
If you attempt to upgrade to a package with an older version number (that is, if a more updated version
of the package is already installed), the output is similar to the following:
package foo-2.0-1 (which is newer than foo-1.0-1) is already installed
Upgrading
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