Is there a way to force an update/upgrade in yum?

Question

There's one package that I can't get upgraded, and it's driving me up the wall because every time I run an update via yum or yumex, I have to
remember to exclude it: firefox. Here's the results of my latest try:

Transaction check error:
file /usr/lib/firefox/browser/defaults/preferences from install of firefox-22.0-1.fc19.i686 conflicts with file from package firefox-22.0-1.fc17.i686

I tried using swap:
yum swap firefox*.fc17.i686 firefox*fc.19.i686

because the man page said that that was simply a short form of remove/install, but yum interpreted it as an update. Maybe I'll have to download the file and use rpm to do it, but there should be a way to force it via yum.

Answer 1

You have two firefox packages installed. There are multiple ways of fixing this with or without yum.

yum remove firefox-22.0-1.fc17.i686
yum distro-sync
package-cleanup --cleandupes
rpm -e firefox-22.0-1.fc17.i686

Pick one.

Answer 2

What happens if you just try to "yum remove firefox" and after that is done do a "yum install firefox"?

Since I remember you saying something about salvaging a half-updated machine, did you

(1) do "yum distro-sync full",
(2) make sure that /etc/os-release says Fedora 19, and
(3) check that repository definitions under /etc/yum.repos.d/ actually point to Fedora 19 repos?

Also, I vaguely remember that upgrading from F17 to F19 is not exactly great idea, and that you'd be better off upgrading to F18 first, and only after that upgrade to F19. Though I believe it's now obsolete advice, given that you have already performed the upgrade...

Answer 3

why not simply "rpm -e --nodeps firefox; yum install firefox" and in doubt "package-cleanup --dupes" and/or "package-cleanup --cleandupes"