RHBA-2011:1702 - Bug Fix Advisory

Topic

An updated yum package that fixes several bugs and adds three enhancements is
now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.

Description

Yum is a command line utility that allows a user to check for and automatically
download and install updated RPM packages. It automatically obtains and
downloads dependencies, prompting the user for permission as necessary.

This update fixes the following bugs:

• When uninstalling a package, the "yum remove" command may have previously

reported success even when the package could not be removed due to an error in
the %pre scriptlet. With this update, this error has been fixed, and when yum
fails to remove a package, it no longer claims that it succeeded. (BZ#661962)

• When running the "yum -v repolist" command, the previous version of the yum

utility may have incorrectly displayed a duplicate "Repo-baseurl" line for a
repository with no mirrors. This update applies a patch that corrects this
error, and the output of the "yum -v repolist" command no longer contains
duplicate lines. (BZ#697885)

• Previously, an attempt to install a package that was larger than 4 GB on a

32-bit architecture caused yum to terminate unexpectedly with a traceback. With
this update, the underlying source code has been adapted to work around this
problem, and packages larger than 4 GB can now be installed as expected.
(BZ#704600)

• Prior to this update, running a yum command with the "--installroot" command

line option caused it to report the following warning:

Ignored option -c (probably due to merging -yc != -y -c)

This update adapts the underlying source code not to display this warning when
the "--installroot" option is in use, resolving this issue. (BZ#707358)

• Under certain circumstances, an attempt to use the RepoStorage API may have

failed with an AttributeError. With this update, this error has been fixed, and
the RepoStorage API can now be used as expected. (BZ#727574)

• Previously, the repodiff utility used a stale metadata cache in subsequent

runs. When two repodiff commands were executed in succession, the second run
reused cached data from the first. This bug has been fixed and repodiff now
properly validates the metadata if a connection cannot be established or the
cached data are about to be reused. (BZ#727586)

• Prior to this update, when the "yum -q history addon-info last saved_tx"

command was used to store transaction data in a file, an attempt to supply this
file to the "yum load-transaction" command in order to repeat the transaction
failed with an error, because the output contained extra lines. This update
corrects the underlying source code to make sure the "yum -q history addon-info
last saved_tx" command produces valid output, and adapts "yum load-transaction"
to accept older version of the output as well. (BZ#728253)

• In very rare cases, the yum utility may have incorrectly kept using old

updateinfo, pkgtags, and groups metadata. When this happened, users may have
been unaware of available updates for up to 6 hours. This update applies a patch
that prevents yum from using outdated metadata, resolving this issue.
(BZ#733391)

As well, this update adds the following enhancements:

• The "yum history" command has been adapted to store and display yumdb and

rpmdb information, such as from which repository was a particular package
installed. (BZ#662243)

• The "yum update" command can now be used to update a package to a specific

version. (BZ#728526)

• The yum utility no longer asks the user to report a bug when the dependency

solver (depsolve) encounters an error. (BZ#694401)

All users of yum are advised to upgrade to this updated package, which fixes
these bugs and adds these enhancements.

Solution

Before applying this update, make sure all previously-released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

This update is available via the Red Hat Network. Details on how to
use the Red Hat Network to apply this update are available at
https://access.redhat.com/kb/docs/DOC-11259

Affected Products

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Workstation 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for IBM z Systems 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Power, big endian 6 ppc64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Scientific Computing 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server from RHUI 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 x86_64
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension 6 i386
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server - Extended Life Cycle Support Extension (for IBM z Systems) 6 s390x

Fixes

• BZ - 661962 - 'yum remove' with %pre/%preun errors says pkg. is removed (and returns 0) but isn't.
• BZ - 662243 - [RFE] Store and display repository information in yum history
• BZ - 697885 - Repo-baseurl shows duplicate line
• BZ - 707358 - Ignored option -c messages in log, when using --installroot.
• BZ - 727574 - yum's RepoStorage api causes attribute error
• BZ - 727586 - repodiff uses stale metadata cache in subsequent runs
• BZ - 728253 - The "yum history addon-info" produces invalid output
• BZ - 733391 - Yum can cache updateinfo (and groups/pkgtags) for too long, in some cases

CVEs

(none)

References

(none)