CentOS Stream (and presumably RHEL) keeps N latest builds available (I'm not sure if it's based on source packages, or binary packages; someone can clarify it in the comments perhaps).

This causes a problem for those depending on older packages, as they might end up being uninstallable, e.g.

• we have a dependency on LLVM 15. When it ages out, no big deal, we keep copies in an internal repo
• annobin is then updated, aging out the old annobin that depends on LLVM 15
• our build process now fails because all the available annobin links against newer LLVM libraries and we're trying to install the old one

This is how it looks like from our end, but on the CentOS Stream side, that means - that old annobin linked against LLVM 15 was uninstallable for months before it finally ages out simply because annobin was updated less often

I can think of two ways to resolve this, but both bring their own complications - so it sounds like something the board should discuss and decide on

• when removing a package, iterate removing packages that become uninstallable until there is nothing more to remove
• when removing a package, if it causes another package to be uninstallable, block and require manual intervention

Since counting is a problem in computer science, option 3 - somewhere in between, allow automatic purging of uninstallable packages up to a certain threshold, and then flag for manual approval

Thoughts? For those of us that need to use older packages, it would really help if we just have to deal with removed packages all at once instead of having packages disappearing slowly over time even though they're linked to the same library removal.