Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5.4 - TECHNICAL NOTES Manual page 288

Chapter 1. Package Updates
Yum is a utility that can check for or automatically download and install updated RPM packages.
Dependencies are obtained and downloaded automatically prompting the user as necessary.
• Several typos in yum manual pages have been corrected.
• Yum now includes support for X.509 authentication at both the server and client end. This
allows users of yum with custom respositories to implement this increased layer of security.
1904
(BZ#462915 )
• The rebased code in this version of yum handles the removal of .sqlite files differently from older
versions. Previously, yum could crash while completing a transaction if it were still cleaning up the
.sqlite file from a previous transaction. This crash cannot happen in the current version of yum.
1905
(BZ#470274 )
• Previously, yum did not create a pkgSack object for a transaction if the transaction included both
a removal and an installation of the same package. As a result, the transaction would fail with the
message Error: Transaction Check Error: package package_name is already
installed. Now, yum creates a pkgSack object for the transaction, removes the package, and
reinstalls it. (BZ#471207
• Previously, due to the constraints of a default terminal screen with a width of 80 characters, the
yum repolist command would truncate the results of both the repo id and repo name
columns. Because the beginnings of many channel ids and and names are identical, the truncation
could make it impossible to identify specific channels. Yum now displays the repo id column
in its entirety, although the repo name column is even further truncated. However, with at least
one of these columns displayed in full, it is now possible to positively identify specific channels.
1907
(BZ#471598 )
• Previously, yum assumed that any terminal was 80 characters in width. Therefore, when it drew a
progress bar on the screen, each additional # printed would force a new line on terminals narrower
than 80 characters. Yum now determines the actual width of the terminal rather than assuming the
width, and draws its progress bars accordingly.
• Previously, when in quiet mode, yum would not print details of the transaction, only the prompt Is
this ok [y/N]. Under certain circumstances, messages from plugins (such as the RHN plugin)
might appear directly above the prompt in quiet mode and make it appear as if the prompt were
related to the message from the plugin rather than to the transaction. Yum now now always prints
details of the transaction -- even in quiet mode -- so that it is always obvious to what the prompt is
referring. (BZ#474826
• Because yum does not lock rpmdb, other applications can make changes to the package database
at the same time that yum does. Previously, changes made to rpmdb by another application could
cause yum to crash; for example, if an application removed data about a package and yum then
attempted to retrieve this data. Now, if yum discovers data that is needs to complete a transaction is
missing from the rpmdb, yum will exit safely and avoid crashing.
• Previously, if a plugin modified a yum transaction with a postresolve hook, yum would ignore
problems created by the original transaction. If the original transaction included conflicting
packages, yum would be unable to resolve the conflict and the transaction would fail. Now yum
does not ignore problems created by the original transaction in situations where the transaction is
modified by a plugin and is able to resolve conflicts as it normally would.
• Previously, when used with the --disablerepo='*' option, or when available repos had no
packages in them, the yum install '*' command produced a long warning that listed every
270
1906
)
1909
)
(BZ#447588
1908
(BZ#474822 )
(BZ#476195
1902 1903
BZ#510012
, )
1910
)
1911
(BZ#481164 )