Bug 175316

Seeing something similar with kernel and kernel-devel:

# cat /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/installonlyn.conf
[main]
enabled=1
# this sets the number of package versions which are kept
tokeep=2

# yum upgrade kernel\*
Loading "installonlyn" plugin
Setting up Upgrade Process
Setting up repositories
Reading repository metadata in from local files
Resolving Dependencies
--> Populating transaction set with selected packages. Please wait.
---> Package kernel.x86_64 0:2.6.14-1.1749_FC5 set to be installed
---> Package kernel-devel.x86_64 0:2.6.14-1.1749_FC5 set to be installed
--> Running transaction check

Dependencies Resolved

=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 kernel                  x86_64     2.6.14-1.1749_FC5  development        16 M
 kernel-devel            x86_64     2.6.14-1.1749_FC5  development       4.3 M
Removing:
 kernel                  x86_64     2.6.14-1.1740_FC5  installed          84 M
 kernel-devel            x86_64     2.6.14-1.1740_FC5  installed          13 M

Transaction Summary
=============================================================================
Install      2 Package(s)
Update       0 Package(s)
Remove       2 Package(s)

Would have expected installonly to keep the old kernel.

You didn't show what you had installed for the kernel and kernel-smp before the
install attempt.

If you have the same number kernel and kernel-smp versions installed before the
operation, then you are similar to my Case 2 and what you see is exactly what I
expect.  Because of the counting invovled, what I am talking about can only be
seen with tokeep=3 or higher and only when the number of kernel and the number
of kernel-smp versions mismatch.  

To be clear  installonlyn with tokeep=2   should keep only keep 2 kernel*
packages on your system. That means 2 kernel and 2 kernel-smp and so on for
kernel-devel and kernel-smp-devel as well.

-jef

Before the upgrade I have only 1 kernel and 1 kernel-devel.  I guess my naive
assumption would be that tokeep=2 would keep two bootable kernels.  Since
kernel-devel is not a bootable kernel I would expect it to be excluded.  So
perhaps it is a different bug?

installyonlyn deals with _all_ installonly packages including kernel-devel.

Jef -- what you're seeing is a side effect of how I implemented the "don't
remove the running kernel" stuff.

Yeah I see exactly how what I'm seeing is happening I just haven't found the
time to attempt a sane patch that makes the side effect go away for the oddball
case my system wandered into.   Maybe this weekend I'll be able to poke at this
and submit a patch.

-jef

Okay, this looks to be saner with the fix for bug 176704.

[root@dhcp150 ~]# rpm -q kernel
kernel-2.6.15-1.1948_FC5
kernel-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5
kernel-2.6.15-1.1953_FC5
kernel-2.6.15-1.1936_FC5
[root@dhcp150 ~]# rpm -q kernel-smp
kernel-smp-2.6.15-1.1955_FC5
kernel-smp-2.6.15-1.1953_FC5
kernel-smp-2.6.15-1.1948_FC5
kernel-smp-2.6.15-1.1936_FC5
kernel-smp-2.6.15-1.1933_FC5
[root@dhcp150 ~]# cat /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/installonlyn.conf
[main]
enabled=1
# this sets the number of package versions which are kept
tokeep=5

[root@dhcp150 ~]# yum update 'kernel*'
...
=============================================================================
 Package                 Arch       Version          Repository        Size
=============================================================================
Installing:
 kernel                  i686       2.6.15-1.1977_FC5  development        13 M
 kernel-smp              i686       2.6.15-1.1977_FC5  development        14 M
Removing:
 kernel-smp              i686       2.6.15-1.1933_FC5  installed          38 M


I'm okay with keeping all kernels of the same "vintage" around since having both
is no longer the default, and even if it were, it doesn't seem _too_ odd to want
to do.