yum provides not working as expected

[Ahmad Samir]

On 09/07/14 18:58, Ian Pilcher wrote:
> I just had an odd experience trying to use 'yum provides' to find the
> acpidump command:
>
>> [pilcher at ian ~]$ sudo yum provides '*/acpidump'
>> Loaded plugins: langpacks, show-leaves
>> fedora/20/x86_64/metalink                                                    |  18 kB  00:00:00
>> fedora-HandBrake                                                             | 2.9 kB  00:00:00
>> google-chrome                                                                |  951 B  00:00:00
>> google-musicmanager                                                          |  951 B  00:00:00
>> google-talkplugin                                                            |  951 B  00:00:00
>> livna                                                                        | 1.3 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-free                                                               | 3.3 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-free-updates                                                       | 3.3 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-nonfree                                                            | 3.3 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-nonfree-updates                                                    | 3.3 kB  00:00:00
>> updates/20/x86_64/metalink                                                   |  14 kB  00:00:00
>> updates                                                                      | 4.9 kB  00:00:00
>> updates/20/x86_64/primary_db                                                 |  11 MB  00:00:03
>> (1/4): rpmfusion-nonfree-updates/20/x86_64/primary_db                        | 115 kB  00:00:00
>> (2/4): rpmfusion-free-updates/20/x86_64/primary_db                           | 343 kB  00:00:00
>> (3/4): updates/20/x86_64/updateinfo                                          | 1.3 MB  00:00:00
>> (4/4): updates/20/x86_64/pkgtags                                             | 1.0 MB  00:00:00
>> fedora-HandBrake/20/x86_64/filelists_db                                      | 3.6 kB  00:00:00
>> google-chrome/filelists                                                      | 1.4 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-free-updates/20/x86_64/filelists_db                                | 231 kB  00:00:00
>> rpmfusion-nonfree-updates/20/x86_64/filelists_db                             |  59 kB  00:00:00
>> updates/20/x86_64/filelists_db                                               |  17 MB  00:00:04
>> No matches found
>
> Google a bit and find out it may be in the acpica-tools package:
>
>> [pilcher at ian ~]$ sudo yum install acpica-tools
>> Loaded plugins: langpacks, show-leaves
>> Resolving Dependencies
>> --> Running transaction check
>> ---> Package acpica-tools.x86_64 0:20140424-3.fc20 will be installed
>> --> Finished Dependency Resolution
>>
>> Dependencies Resolved
>>
>> ====================================================================================================
>>   Package                  Arch               Version                      Repository           Size
>> ====================================================================================================
>> Installing:
>>   acpica-tools             x86_64             20140424-3.fc20              updates             780 k
>>
>> Transaction Summary
>> ====================================================================================================
>> Install  1 Package
>>
>> Total download size: 780 k
>> Installed size: 2.5 M
>> Is this ok [y/d/N]: y
>> Downloading packages:
>> acpica-tools-20140424-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm                                      | 780 kB  00:00:00
>> Running transaction check
>> Running transaction test
>> Transaction test succeeded
>> Running transaction (shutdown inhibited)
>>    Installing : acpica-tools-20140424-3.fc20.x86_64                                              1/1
>>    Verifying  : acpica-tools-20140424-3.fc20.x86_64                                              1/1
>>
>> Installed:
>>    acpica-tools.x86_64 0:20140424-3.fc20
>>
>> Complete!
>> New leaves:
>>    acpica-tools.x86_64
>> [pilcher at ian ~]$ which acpidump
>> /usr/bin/acpidump
>
> Shouldn't "yum provides '*/acpidump'" have turned up acpica-tools?
>

No, because /usr/bin/acpidump is not a file in the rpm:
$ repoquery --list acpica-tools
/usr/bin/acpibin
/usr/bin/acpidump-acpica
/usr/bin/acpiexamples
/usr/bin/acpiexec
/usr/bin/acpihelp
/usr/bin/acpinames
/usr/bin/acpisrc
/usr/bin/acpixtract-acpica
/usr/bin/iasl
/usr/share/doc/acpica-tools
/usr/share/doc/acpica-tools/COPYING
/usr/share/doc/acpica-tools/README.Fedora
/usr/share/doc/acpica-tools/changes.txt
/usr/share/doc/acpica-tools/new_table.txt
/usr/share/man/man1/acpibin.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpidump-acpica.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpiexec.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpihelp.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpinames.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpisrc.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/acpixtract-acpica.1.gz
/usr/share/man/man1/iasl.1.gz


it's actually a symlink installed by the alternatives system:
$rpm -qp --scripts acpica-tools-20140424-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm
[...]

alternatives --install /usr/bin/acpidump acpidump \
                        /usr/bin/acpidump-acpica 120 \
                --slave /usr/share/man/man1/acpidump.1.gz acpidump.1.gz \
                        /usr/share/man/man1/acpidump-acpica.1.gz
[...]


note that acpica-tools has an virtual provides acpidump, so just 'yum 
provides acipdump' should work. Admittedly this is a corner case.

-- 
Ahmad Samir