Stemed from thread:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=472401

This post in response to:

"You can remove any package you like, as long as it hasn't dependencies.

pkgrm should tell you if some packages depend on the one being attempted to be removed." --jlliagre


Yeah i caught that, the problem is that when i tried to remove an older SFWgcmn before applying the newer SFWgcmn it gave me a dependancy error. (updating the SFWgcmn so i can run the latest version of xemacs)

I know that in the end i just want to upgrade SFWgcmn. How do you normally handle this?

I tried installing them side by side. The latest SFWgcmn installed as package SFWgcmn.2. Then i removed the older SFWgcmn package. Then i wanted to change the package id from SFWgcmn.2 to SFWgcmn. I uninstalled it, ignored dependancies (i know shame on me). Then re-installed the newer SFWgcmn.

In the end, i have NO clue how solaris handles updates. What little i read they say just remove the older package that you want to update before adding the new package. And i know that i should avoid removing a package when others depend on it like the black plague.

So overall my question is this:

What is the best practice when handling package updates?

If you are sure the new package won't break the other ones depending on it, because of version mismatches, you can remove the old package, ignoring the dependancies, then install the new one.

An alternative approach is used by Sun own packages, where upgrading can be done simply by applying patches.

Yeah sun patches work great! The only trick is that i'm restricted on what patches i can install due to customer requirements. So i'm finding myself jugling patches.

I just get very worried removing anything that has a dependency, as in the page it really cornered me.

One thing that i loved about rpm, is that you have the -update option for updating RPMs. You didn't have to care what happened behind the scenes. It could have removed the one with dependencies and installed the new rpm package, but at least it knows what to do.

I'm just wondering if i'm making the right decision in removing a package that has dependencies.

You can use packaging commands wrappers like "pkg-get" or "pkgadm" with sunfreeware, blastwave, or the companion CD repositories for a similar update feature.