6.1 Package and Bundle Flags

When you install or remove a Linux RPM Application bundle on a device, the nature of the package install or removal depends on various package and bundle flags.

Some of the important flags are described below:

Freshen: Packages for which this flag is set to true are installed or upgraded only if a lower version of the package is already installed on the device. If the flag is set to false, the packages are installed along with their dependent packages while installing the bundle.

If the version of the package that is installed on the device is later than the version of the package in the bundle, the installation of the package in the bundle is skipped during bundle installation.

Install Type: The Install Type flag allows Auto, Upgrade, or Install operations on a package in a bundle. The default value while creating Linux bundles is Auto. When the Install Type is set to Auto or Upgrade, the package is installed or upgraded. This operation is similar to the operation performed when you run the rpm --upgrade --force or rpm -U --force commands. When the Install Type is set to Install, the package installation operation is similar to the operation performed when you run the rpm --install --force or rpm -i --force commands. With rpm -i, multiple versions of the same package can be installed simultaneously. However, if there are conflicting packages, the rpm -i command displays an error, but ZENworks agent forcibly installs the package, similar to the rpm -i --force command.

When multiple versions of the package with conflicting files are installed, the RPM indicates that multiple versions are installed, but only the files of the package that was last installed are available on the device. Therefore, it is not advisable to set the Install Type to Install unless you are sure that multiple versions of the package can coexist. For example, two different versions of kernel packages or two different versions of Java packages can coexist with each other.

For most of the packages, multiple versions of the same package cannot coexist.

NOTE:For replicating packages by using subscriptions, the Install Type for kernel packages is set to Install by default.

Allow Removal of Conflicting Packages: This option is selected by default for the Install RPMs action. It allows the ZENworks agent to automatically remove any conflicting packages during the installation. If you do not select this check box, the conflicting packages are not removed, and the package installation fails.

Ignore Dependencies: If this flag is set to true, the RPMs are installed without checking for dependencies. This means that the dependent packages are not installed during package installation. This option is useful if you have already installed the dependent RPMs of a package before installing the package. For example, you can install the dependent packages by using the tar zip archive.

NOTE:You cannot choose to remove the conflicting packages and to ignore dependencies at the same time. This is because dependency resolution is necessary to effectively allow the removal of conflicting packages and the dependency resolution is not done while ignoring dependencies.