Removing older packages

English Applications
#1

Whenever I see that I have an older version along with a newer version, should I always remove the older version? If so why doesn’t zypper remove obsolete packages upon installing a newer version?

Examples:


S | Name                   | Summary                                        | Type   
--+------------------------+------------------------------------------------+--------
i | libopencv2_3           | Development files for using the OpenCV library | package
  | libopencv2_3-debuginfo | Debug information for package libopencv2_3     | package
i | libopencv2_4           | Development files for using the OpenCV library | package
  | libopencv2_4-debuginfo | Debug information for package libopencv2_4     | package

and


S | Name                        | Summary                                   | Type   
--+-----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+--------
i | libavutil50                 | FFmpeg libavutil                          | package
  | libavutil50-32bit           | FFmpeg libavutil                          | package
  | libavutil50-debuginfo       | Debug information for package libavutil50 | package
  | libavutil50-debuginfo-32bit | Debug information for package libavutil50 | package
i | libavutil51                 | FFmpeg libavutil                          | package
  | libavutil51-32bit           | FFmpeg libavutil                          | package
  | libavutil51-debuginfo       | Debug information for package libavutil51 | package
  | libavutil51-debuginfo-32bit | Debug information for package libavutil51 | package
#2

You don’t need to remove them.
It’s not that important that you do. Let sleeping dogs alone.

#3

Same applies for codecs?

#4

As you do not tell what version of openSUSE you use (why, oh why do many people want to keep that as a secret?) I can not compare with what I have.

But it may be that one package requires the one and another packake (still) requires the other. It is not for nothing they have different names (and not only versions) thus being different things with may be different interfaces, thus programs using them can coexist and gradualy convert to a newer version of that library.

The ultimate test is of course to try to deinstall and see what dependency issue is thrown upon you.

#5

12.1.

I was just using those two as examples. I meant in general should I remove any older packages. I asked about codecs specifically because in another thread I was told to remove obsolete/old codecs.

#6

I guess that when you look in YaST > Software > Software management and you have a library package (codecs or not) where the version field is shown red (and you have the repo belonging to it enabled!), you can remove it because the repo does not provide it any more, which would mean that you wouldn’t get it when you installed your system anew.

E.g. in my 11.4 system I have:
. libavcodec52 version 0.7.12-2.1 (0.7.12-3.1)
. libavcodec53 version 0.10.3-1.1
which, when combining with reading the Version tab contents below, means for the first line that I could update to the newer version of libavcode52 from Packman and for the second line that libavcode53 is not available anymore in whatever version fom Packman.

IMHO it does no harm to let it stay on your system, but as you do not provide a link to that other thread I have no comment on the reasoning that was used there.

But I would never remove a package solely because the name is almost the same as another package save for a number at the end of that string.

#7

Sorry, thread = http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/multimedia/476122-video-issues-web-issues-slow-downs.html

#8

That is a long history. I went through at at speed. The only thing I see related to what I aay above is that the libavcodec53 is not anymore where it came from (Packman) and IMHO (and @caf4926 saiad the same) can be deleted.

But that is NOT the same as deleting all packages which end in a numbber lower then packages that have almost the same name, but end with a higher number. And that is what you asked for in this thread in post #! if I interpreted correctly…

#9

If you’d updated correctly
libavcodec53 would have been removed
It was for me

#10

Correct. The response I got just prompted me to ask about codecs. Also my libavcodec53 is long gone.

Thanks

#11

On 2012-06-20 20:56, Static2k wrote:
>
> 12.1.
>
> I was just using those two as examples. I meant in general should I
> remove any older packages. I asked about codecs specifically because in
> another thread I was told to remove obsolete/old codecs.

Notice that the example you used it is not two versions of the same
package, it is two different packages with similar names. Those packages
are not using the normal version numbering, so that zypper does not sees
2_4 as an update of 2_3 and does not remove the old one.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)