Why do I get a file conflict when I try to update perl through my package manager?

Question

file /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.8/File/Path.pm from install of perl-5.8.8-32.el5_5.1.i386 conflicts with file from package perl-5.8.8-27.el5.x86_64

Answer 1

This might be more of a SuperUser question, but I'd venture to say that the conflict is because you're trying to install a version of Perl for a different processor architecture on top of your current one. The packages aren't technically the same, since they're different architectures, so the package manager is trying to install them both at the same time instead of upgrading (causing the conflict).

Upgrading from an x86_64 version to a newer x86_64 version will probably work, but your error indicates you're trying to upgrade an x86_64 installation with an i386 version.