Updating libraries
 

When I want to install a new version of some library with rpm on RedHat 7.1 (which I need for some other software), I sometimes get the message that the older version of the library is still needed by some programs.

For example, when I type:

rpm -F openssl-0.9.6b-8.i386.rpm

I get messages, such as:

libcrypto.so.1 is needed by bind-utils-9.1.0-10
libcrypto.so.1 is needed by slrn-0.9.6.4-2
libcrypto.so.1 is needed by cyrus-sasl-1.5.24-17
etc.

A newer version of libcrypto.so is in the package openssl-0.9.6b-8.i386.rpm.
If I force installation, will bind-utils, slrn and cyrus-sasl still work?

How to handle this? Can I install two versions of the same library or are libraries always backwards compatible?

Best wishes,
Janneman

No, they won't work anymore, because the run-time linker would fail to find libcrypto.so.1, where the 1 is a library interface version.

Btw, using --force is inherently dangerous. It's a collection of options actually. Look it up in the manual. It would also overwrite existing files from other packages. Even --nodeps is a risk already.

If you repackaged and rebuilt the library, you could install them in different locations and use them at the same time.

I ran 'yum update' on RedHat 7.1, but it took too long and I killed it.
Now rpm won't run anymore, giving the error message:

rpm: error while loading shared libraries: librpm-4.2.so: cannot load shared object file: No such file or directory

yum doesn't work either: 'yum update rpm' results in:

Traceback (innermost last):
File "/usr/bin/yum", line 22, in ?
import yummain
File "yummain.py", line 21, in ?
File "clientStuff.py", line 22, in ?
ImportError: librpm.so.0: cannot load shared object file: No such file or directory

I also cannot login anymore on KDE (GNOME still functions).
How can I install rpm or yum without using rpm or yum?

Janneman.

Yum cannot damage your system like that unless you configured incompatible repositories and started to upgrade to something which messed up your system. It sounds much as if you interrupted yum during an upgrade.

You need to boot the first installation CD with "linux rescue" and then use the rescue mode's working version of rpm to over-install the rpm package into your mounted system. Use rpm's --root parameter to point rpm to the mount point. If that is not enough of a hint, get back with details in case you have questions.

Once rpm is working again, you can chroot into the mounted system and take a look at: rpm --query --all --last | less

I bet you've upgraded lots of packages and moved your installation into an unusable state.

Btw, Red Hat Linux 7.1 is out-of-date and fully unsupported. The oldest Red Hat Linux which is still supported by Fedora Legacy is Red Hat Linux 7.3.