[Fedora-packaging] RPM doesn't conflict

[Ralf Corsepius]

On 03/06/2012 12:56 PM, Nelson Manuel Marques wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> I would like to clear a doubt if possible regarding the installation of RPM's and potential conflicts. Here's somehow a twisted use case:
>
>   1) 2 RPMs: foobar-1.0.noarch.rpm and foobar-2.0.noarch.rpm
>   2) Both RPMs have exactly the contents: %{_sysconfdir}/foobar.conf
>   3) The contents of the file foobar.conf are the same in both RPM's, it has a single line with: Hello World!
>
> Now, if I do:
>
>   # rpm -ivh foobar-1.0.noarch.rpm&&  rpm -ivh foobar-2.0.noarch.rpm
>
> Both RPMs install perfectly. Please notice I'm doing '-i' and not '-U'. Is this the intended behavior of the RPM ? Shouldn't it return a conflict because the file is already installed ?
>
> If I change the contents of the file, so that both RPM's have the same file with different contents (which makes a different hash), the conflict does exist.
>
> Anyone could clarify to me why one conflicts (which I believe to be the intended behavior using '-i') and if the files are exactly the same they don't conflict and it allows install...

This is a feature.

Files can belong to several rpms, as long as these files' contents is 
identical.


Ralf