CentOS - Jun 2017 - yum install <olderversion> does not downgrade

We're using ansible to configure our CentOS 6 servers, and we have a
task to install a specific version of a package:

- name: install thrift2
  yum: name=ripencc-thrift2-{{ version }}

In this ansible task, the "version" variable is set by the operator.
When we want to upgrade, it works. But today we had to downgrade, and
noticed that ansible wasn't downgrading it. So we tried by hand (the
installed version was 1.0.8):

# yum install ripencc-thrift2-1.0.3

I don't have the output handy, because a colleague was working on it,
but basically, yum said something like "package already installed" and
refused to downgrade it, even though the package is in our repository.

I have a strong sense that yum _used to_ downgrade packages if asked to
install an older version, but perhaps I am misremembering.

Nevertheless, I want to ask: is this a bug in yum? If asked to install a
specific version, should it not upgrade OR downgrade as needed?

Regards,
Anand

Use the 'downgrade' option.

https://access.redhat.com/solutions/29617

On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 1:46 PM, Anand Buddhdev <anandb at ripe.net> wrote:
> We're using ansible to configure our CentOS 6 servers, and we have a
> task to install a specific version of a package:
>
> - name: install thrift2
>   yum: name=ripencc-thrift2-{{ version }}
>
> In this ansible task, the "version" variable is set by the
operator.
> When we want to upgrade, it works. But today we had to downgrade, and
> noticed that ansible wasn't downgrading it. So we tried by hand (the
> installed version was 1.0.8):
>
> # yum install ripencc-thrift2-1.0.3
>
> I don't have the output handy, because a colleague was working on it,
> but basically, yum said something like "package already
installed" and
> refused to downgrade it, even though the package is in our repository.
>
> I have a strong sense that yum _used to_ downgrade packages if asked to
> install an older version, but perhaps I am misremembering.
>
> Nevertheless, I want to ask: is this a bug in yum? If asked to install a
> specific version, should it not upgrade OR downgrade as needed?
>
> Regards,
> Anand
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>


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On 01/06/2017 22:29, Tate Belden wrote:
> Use the 'downgrade' option.
Thanks Tate. I know the "downgrade" option well. I wouldn't have
posted
my question if it were that simple.

As I said previously, we use ansible, and its "yum" module invokes:

yum install package-version-release

I expect yum to honour this, and downgrade a package if necessary, but
it's not doing that.

Given the lack of opinions here, I'll file a bugzilla report and see
what the maintainers say.

Regards,
Anand

Personally, I would do one of three things:

1. Use the -m command to run 'yum install <version>' which /might/
work.

2. Uninstall the newer package and install the version you want. (Check 
the 'state' directive to do this.)

3. Pin that package version when creating the server/VM so as not to be 
updated.

#3 is useful to us as we kickstart all our servers and VMs, and this 
eliminates the problem going forward.  Then, when we're ready to upgrade 
the pinned package, we have an ansible playbook that unpins that 
version, installs the new version (even if not latest), then re-pins.

HTH.


On 06/01/2017 03:46 PM, Anand Buddhdev wrote:
> We're using ansible to configure our CentOS 6 servers, and we have a
> task to install a specific version of a package:
>
> - name: install thrift2
>    yum: name=ripencc-thrift2-{{ version }}
>
> In this ansible task, the "version" variable is set by the
operator.
> When we want to upgrade, it works. But today we had to downgrade, and
> noticed that ansible wasn't downgrading it. So we tried by hand (the
> installed version was 1.0.8):
>
> # yum install ripencc-thrift2-1.0.3
>
> I don't have the output handy, because a colleague was working on it,
> but basically, yum said something like "package already
installed" and
> refused to downgrade it, even though the package is in our repository.
>
> I have a strong sense that yum _used to_ downgrade packages if asked to
> install an older version, but perhaps I am misremembering.
>
> Nevertheless, I want to ask: is this a bug in yum? If asked to install a
> specific version, should it not upgrade OR downgrade as needed?
>
> Regards,
> Anand
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos

On 2 Jun 2017 1:28 pm, "Mark Haney" <mark.haney at neonova.net>
wrote:

Personally, I would do one of three things:

1. Use the -m command to run 'yum install <version>' which /might/
work.

2. Uninstall the newer package and install the version you want. (Check the
'state' directive to do this.)

3. Pin that package version when creating the server/VM so as not to be
updated.

#3 is useful to us as we kickstart all our servers and VMs, and this
eliminates the problem going forward.  Then, when we're ready to upgrade
the pinned package, we have an ansible playbook that unpins that version,
installs the new version (even if not latest), then re-pins.

HTH.



On 06/01/2017 03:46 PM, Anand Buddhdev wrote:
> We're using ansible to configure our CentOS 6 servers, and we have a
> task to install a specific version of a package:
>
> - name: install thrift2
>    yum: name=ripencc-thrift2-{{ version }}
>
> In this ansible task, the "version" variable is set by the
operator.
> When we want to upgrade, it works. But today we had to downgrade, and
> noticed that ansible wasn't downgrading it. So we tried by hand (the
> installed version was 1.0.8):
>
> # yum install ripencc-thrift2-1.0.3
>
> I don't have the output handy, because a colleague was working on it,
> but basically, yum said something like "package already
installed" and
> refused to downgrade it, even though the package is in our repository.
>
> I have a strong sense that yum _used to_ downgrade packages if asked to
> install an older version, but perhaps I am misremembering.
>
> Nevertheless, I want to ask: is this a bug in yum? If asked to install a
> specific version, should it not upgrade OR downgrade as needed?
>
> Regards,
> Anand
> _______________________________________________
> CentOS mailing list
> CentOS at centos.org
> https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
>
_______________________________________________
CentOS mailing list
CentOS at centos.org
https://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos


The present version of ansible can't handle downgrades with the yum module

There's been a few discussions of this over time but this is the most
recent I think, and it looks like it might get fixed on 2.4 perhaps

https://github.com/ansible/ansible/issues/21516

If you want to do a specific version you are better off not using the yum
module at present but rather shell/command to do so instead.