Hi Troy,

Tested on one machine (SL 4.6 i386), here is the relevant yum output:
> Beginning versionfix
> Package openssl-perl needs to be updated to openssl-perl - 0.9.7a-43.17.el4_6.1.i386
> Package perl needs to be updated to perl - 3:5.8.5-36.el4_6.3.i386
> Package openldap-clients needs to be updated to openldap-clients - 2.2.13-8.el4_6.5.i386
> Package pcre needs to be updated to pcre - 4.5-4.el4_6.6.i386
> Package cups-libs needs to be updated to cups-libs - 1:1.1.22-0.rc1.9.20.2.el4_6.6.i386
> Package openldap needs to be updated to openldap - 2.2.13-8.el4_6.5.i386
> Package perl-suidperl needs to be updated to perl-suidperl - 3:5.8.5-36.el4_6.3.i386
> Package net-snmp-libs needs to be updated to net-snmp-libs - 5.1.2-11.el4_6.11.3.i386
> Package openssl needs to be updated to openssl - 0.9.7a-43.17.el4_6.1.i686
> Package compat-openldap needs to be updated to compat-openldap - 2.1.30-8.el4_6.5.i386
> Package pcre-devel needs to be updated to pcre-devel - 4.5-4.el4_6.6.i386
> Package cups needs to be updated to cups - 1:1.1.22-0.rc1.9.20.2.el4_6.6.i386
> Ending versionfix

Is this a one-time fix ? After installing yum-versionfix and running 
"yum update", can we then remove yum-versionfix and the patched yum ?


PS How did CentOS deal with the %{dist} naming tag ?

Thanks,
--Chris

> Date:    Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:06:16 -0500
> From:    Troy Dawson <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: TESTING - yum and yum-versionfix for SL4
> 
> Hello,
> When RedHat started naming their rpm's with a %{dist} tag, it took us a little 
> while to figure out the correct way to proceed.  As a result, we pushed out 
> some errata rpm's, that have poor names.
> They are named in such a way that both RPM and YUM think that the newer errata 
> are older than the old errata.  As a result, they won't update them.
> We pulled these poorly named errata out of the repositories as soon as we knew 
> about them, but some machine's got the updates.
> It's not that the packages are bad, it's just that you cannot update them to 
> the latest errata if there is a security problem.
> I've finally got the fix working for this.
> yum-versionfix is a plugin for yum that takes a list of packages, and what 
> those packages should be replaced by, even if rpm or yum thinks they are older 
> than the original packages.
> There is also a new patched yum for SL4.  It is only a 4 line patch that allows 
> it to do rpm downgrades.  It's actually 4 lines taken directly from the yum in SL5.
> Together, these packages should update your poorly named packages.
> 
> To test
> 
> SL4
> -------
>        yum --enablerepo=sl-testing install yum-versionfix
> or
>    rpm -Uvh 
> http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/40rolling/testing/i386/RPMS/yum/yum-2.4.3-3.SL.noarch.rpm
>    rpm -Uvh 
> http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/40rolling/testing/i386/RPMS/yum/yum-versionfix-1.0-2.sl4.noarch.rpm
> 
> It will be enabled by default.  So, all you have to do is
>    yum update
> and you should see a package or two needing to update.
> 
> Thanks
> Troy
> p.s. If anyone has a better way of explaining this, please let me know.  This 
> seems a bit wordy and scary.
> --


-- 
Chris Hunter
[log in to unmask]