RPM should support "rpm -Uvh *.rpm" skipping files that are already installed

[Jeff Johnson]

Tracker

[Syam (syam-redhat-bugs)]

If I have a number of RPM files and I want to install them all, I do: "rpm -Uvh *.rpm" (the -i command will not work if older version of any package is already installed).

But if any of these RPM files are already installed, the above command will fail listing those files as already installed.
IMHO, RPM should skip those already-installed files and continue with installing the remaining files, instead of doing nothing.

[Jeff (jeff-redhat-bugs)]

See the --freshen option.

Note that using -i does not erase older versions of packages. In
almost all cases (kernel packages are the notable exception)
-U,--upgrade should be used. The behavior of -U is identical
to -i when there is no older version of a package already installed.

[Syam (syam-redhat-bugs)]

Thanks. But the --freshen (equivalent to -F) is an alternative to -U, isn't it? It's not an option to -U.
I case I mentioned requires a 'skip existing' (i.e. 'upgrade older' & 'install new') option to -U.

[Syam (syam-redhat-bugs)]

Reading the documentation, I figure "-U --replacepkgs *.rpm" will install all packages, even the ones that are already installed.
The only difference between the original use-case being that the existing packages are re-installed and not skipped.

[Jeff (jeff-redhat-bugs)]

Yes, --freshen will skip uninstalled, while --replacepkgs will re-install already installed,
leaving the corner case of what to do with --freshen if "same" package is claimed to
be already installed.

The reason for the corner case is that already installed packages might be
modified and its not clear whether "skipping" or "re-installing" is the desired intent.

FWIW, I suspect (unchecked, just I know the code) that "--freshen --replacepkgs"
works just like "--update --replacepkgs" but will also skip uninstalled packages.

[Jeff Johnson (n3npq)]

Use --freshen instead.

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