Description of problem: Yum uses the same visual presentation for file sizes of packages that are installed and packages that are in a repo, but it computes the file sizes differently. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): yum-3.2.4-2.fc7 How reproducible: The following example uses yum info, but the same problem occurs on yum update. $ yum info kernel Installed Packages Name : kernel Arch : x86_64 Version: 2.6.22.1 Release: 41.fc7 Size : 63 M Repo : installed Summary: The Linux kernel (the core of the Linux operating system) Description: The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of any Linux operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation, device input and output, etc. Name : kernel Arch : x86_64 Version: 2.6.22.4 Release: 65.fc7 Size : 63 M Repo : installed Summary: The Linux kernel (the core of the Linux operating system) Description: The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of any Linux operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation, device input and output, etc. Available Packages Name : kernel Arch : x86_64 Version: 2.6.22.5 Release: 76.fc7 Size : 17 M Repo : updates Summary: The Linux kernel (the core of the Linux operating system) Description: The kernel package contains the Linux kernel (vmlinuz), the core of any Linux operating system. The kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system: memory allocation, process allocation, device input and output, etc.
So you think that the installed package should display the rpm-file size and not the installed size? or do you think the remote package should display the installed size and not the size of what you have to download?
Can we have it both ways? The "yum info" case could have another line to describe the download size. And for yum update, I think the size column should list the installed size -- there already is the "Total download size: 171 M" line.
From a user's perspective, yum operates on rpms, and less so on their contents. It should by default report rpm-file sizes everywhere for the sake of usability and consistency. Arguably, installed file size is not very relevant when one is doing an update (after all, one already has the package installed, and installed size is unlikely to change dramatically), so there's little reason to try to display the installed file size there. (Therefore, I disagree with comment #2.) But I can see how installed file size is useful when one does "yum info" in order to decide whether or not to install a package, so it could be an additional line there.
Installed file size is also useful on installed packages if you're trying to clean up space -- you can judge how worthwhile it is to bother with some particular thing.
I'm going to close this wontfix. I believe the behavior it has now is correct. It's consistent for each type of package and it displays the right info in yum info per type of package. None of the arguments so far have convinced me. Got any other arguments?
Nope. :)
It just looks weird if yum says "Look, I'm going to download a 10M package, and that's an update for this 60M package you have." It's comparing apples and oranges. It could say "Look, I'm going to download 10M (60M uncompressed) package, and that's an update for this 60M uncompressed package you have." It could also be smart in yum info: if (installed) print "Installed Size: 60M" else if (available for download) print "Download Size: 10M"