[ale] x86_64 questions, and Fedora 8

[Joe Bayes]

I installed Fedora 8 x86_64 today, and I have some questions about
multiple architectures of the same package on the same machine. 

Now, I understand (I think...) why some packages might install both an
x86_64 and an i686 version: glibc, for example, might need to link to
an installed i686 program. But, when the packages both own a file (for
example, /sbin/ldconfig is owned by both glibc.x86_64 and glibc.i686),
which version of the file is written to disk?

spoo:~$ rpm -qf /sbin/ldconfig
glibc-2.7-2.x86_64
glibc-2.7-2.i686

Or, have the package maintainers arranged it so that the only files
that are shared are identical ones?

And is it safe to delete some of the i386 packages? (Will rpm stop me
if I try to delete a duplicate i386 that's not safe to delete?) While
I wouldn't mess with glibc.i686, I don't see why I should keep (for
example) digikam.i386 around on the off chance that I should find a
legacy i386 rpm that depends on it.

Yeah...so I've probably made some bad assumptions somewhere that are
confusing me. Can someone set me straight? (Or, even better, point me
to an explanation?)

Thanks,

Joe

--
Joe Bayes -- jbayes at spoo.mminternet.com