RPM :: How To Remove Packages With RPM "Error: ... Specifies Multiple Packages "

Hi Friends,

Sometimes when you want to remove any packages installed on Server using RPM, you will get errors as "error: "" specifies multiple packages ". To get ride of this error, you have to use "--allmatches" option available with RPM command.

Below is example where I have tried to remove "cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5" from server. Actually here we have "cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5" installed for i386(32 bit) as well as x86_64(64 bit). So there are two copies of a single package available.

Example :

~$ sudo rpm -qa | grep cups
cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5
cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5
~$ sudo rpm -e cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5
error: "cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5" specifies multiple packages
~$ sudo rpm -e  --allmatches cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5
error: Failed dependencies:
        libcups.so.2()(64bit) is needed by (installed) gtk2-2.10.4-21.el5_7.7.x86_64
        libcups.so.2()(64bit) is needed by (installed) paps-0.6.6-20.el5.x86_64
        libcups.so.2 is needed by (installed) gtk2-2.10.4-21.el5_7.7.i386
~$ sudo rpm -e  --allmatches --nodeps cups-libs-1.3.7-30.el5
~$ sudo rpm -qa | grep cups

Note : Here, we have used "--nodeps" option for excluding dependencies!

Thanks!
Kuldeep