Trouble Removing RPM's

Alan alan at clueserver.org
Mon Mar 3 17:43:15 UTC 2008


> Jim wrote:
>
>> I have a x86_64 box that has two of the same rpm :
>> gtk2-2.12.1-5.fc8.i386.rpm
>> gtk2-2.12.1-5.fc8.x86_64.rpm
>>
>> I have tried yum and rpm to remove the packages, but to no avail.
>
> gtk2 is a fairly essential part of most fedora systems.
> Why wouldn't you want to remove these?

There is a good reason there are two versions of the same package.  One is
the 32 bit libraries and one is the 64 bit libraries.

Any of the x86_64 (Intel or AMD) are dual architecture systems.  The are
able to run both 32 bit and 64 bit binaries.  If a package is built for
32bit, it will need the 32bit libraries.  If it is built for 64bit it will
need the 64 bit libraries.

Don't try ripping out all the 32 bit versions.  Your system will stop
working.

When the system installs and both packages are installed there is a
certain amount of overlap.  The package manager figures out which of these
overlap and install a bit from each.  In removing just one package you may
remove bits that the system still needs connected to that 32 bit package. 
(There is a way to do it if you are crazy enough, but it is REALLY time
consuming and you don't save very much space.  Not a good idea unless you
get a screwup where you have one architecture at a different version that
the other. (Usually from a crash in the middle of an update.) That is not
the case here.)

You may not have 32 bit gtk apps installed now, but you might later. 
There are a number of packages that are only available as 32bit.  (Acrobat
Reader comes to mind.)  If you remeove the 32bit versions of the
libraries, these other apps will not work.




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