I installed rawhide-release-20000212-1, including readline-4.0-1, and I got a bunch of missing rpm dependencies on the older libreadline.so.3 . Perhaps this is included an a compatibility rpm that I missed?
Nope; the dependencies will be resolved when the various packages are recompiled against readline-4.0; workaround is to either recompile those you need, or don't install readline-4.
I was going to report this bug, but see that it's already been given some attention...
What about third-party applications linked against readline? Recompiling isn't always an option, and third-party applications shouldn't just break when a new RedHat version is installed. I think you need to provide a compat-readline RPM with the old library in it.
Two things. First, I agree with jik.ma.us: provide a compat-readline. Second, here's a list of RPMs on my machine that have a missing dependency on readline now that I've (force) upgraded to readline-4.0-1. Some of these are from Powertools. Most worked OK when I made a symlink from libreadline.so.3 to libreadline.so.4 and from libhistory.so.3 to libhistory.so.4. Others (most notably samba and cdcd) didn't. Perhaps you can use this as a basis for what needs to be recompiled for the next Rawhide release? Unsatisfied dependencies for R-base-0.64.2-3: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for amanda-2.4.1p1-3: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for amanda-client-2.4.1p1-3: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for amanda-server-2.4.1p1-3: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for bc-1.05a-5: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for cdcd-0.4.6-2: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for cdecl-2.5-10: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for ext2ed-0.1-20: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for ftp-0.16-3: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for fvwm2-2.2.4-4: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for git-4.3.19-2: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for gnome-games-1.0.51-4: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for gnuplot-3.7.1-2: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for guile-1.3-8: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for libgtop-examples-1.0.6-1: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for librep-0.10-2: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for mico-2.2.7-1: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for mico-devel-2.2.7-1: egcs-c++ >= 1.1.1, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for mysql-3.20.32a-1: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for mysql-client-3.20.32a-1: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for pilot-link-0.9.3-2: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for postgresql-6.5.3-6: libhistory.so.3, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for postgresql-devel-6.5.3-6: libhistory.so.3, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for postgresql-odbc-6.5.3-6: libhistory.so.3, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for postgresql-server-6.5.3-6: libhistory.so.3, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for postgresql-tcl-6.5.3-6: libhistory.so.3, libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for python-1.5.2-13: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for samba-2.0.6-8: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for samba-client-2.0.6-8: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for samba-common-2.0.6-8: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for sawmill-0.23-1: libreadline.so.3 Unsatisfied dependencies for units-1.55-5: libreadline.so.3
*** Bug 10517 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***