yum is wonderful the way with one command you can updated a package and all its dependencies.

The gcc suite has recently been updated to 4.2.0. I need try this as gcc 4.1.2 still has problems with gfortran unformatted io on i386 linux. Yum cannot find this version. When/how will the repo be updated?

Are there other repos I can add; I currently just use the default.

If I download and install gcc nmanually will this confuse yum?

Is it possible to get yum to 'go back' to a previous version?

Mike

I don't recall seeing GCC updated in a distribution unless it is a minor revision. Upgrading to a major revision can cause incompatibilities for the existing software. Based on what I have read it has to do with the Application Binary Interface (ABI).

There are distributions that allow you to do this, Gentoo for example. If you really want to start using 4.2.0 you can do it with Fedora by building in a target directory where there is no previous version of GCC present. Then it would be a matter of using this path to compile/build your software. You can find instructions for this at gnu.org on the Installing GCC page.

Bill