NI Package Manager (NIPM)

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Downgrading without removing dependent packages?

Is there any way in NIPM you can downgrade to a previous package without having to remove the current one first - and then be forced (?) to remove all dependent packages (only to then have to reinstall those)?

 

If for example you have VISA 19.5 installed, and most of the packages (LabVIEW 2019 e.g.!) would happily support VISA 19.0 - I do not want to remove those along with 19.5, having to reinstall them all again - when I just want VISA to be downgraded to 19.0.

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Hi Mads,

 

Unfortunately there is no way to do this. Package Manager identifies any dependencies on the package that is being removed and removes these as well to guarantee that there is no potential chance of software corruption.

 

Visa is one of the more difficult packages as it creates so many dependencies with all of the different software installed. 

 

It can be frustrating but the only way to successfully 'downgrade' VISA is to also remove the dependencies that NIPM flags and then reinstall the necessary packages.

 

Thanks,

 

Alasdair

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I know there is not at the moment...

 

There is one twist here though; even if we are not really allowed to downgrade we could be allowed to override that safety-measure and uninstall a software package anyway (throw me a warning, but do not stop me). This is useful for example when the user knows that he will reinstall it afterwards anyway. And/or he is willing to take his chances on things failing, knowing that the alternative is to reinstall *everything*. That was the case when I ran into this issue. Repairing VISA 19.0 failed, so I wanted to remove it instead only to reinstall it afterwards. That might leave some loose ends here and there, but I imagine that the reinstall might patch things up afterwards.

 

The ideal solution would just be to fix the failing repair function though 😉

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You might want to try using the command line nipkg.exe to do the downgrade. If everything else is fine with VISA 19.0, you should be able to just downgrade it and not have to uninstall/remove other packages. There would be a few hoops to jump through as you will need to add the NI-VISA 19.0 feed. (It appears NI is doing a different feed for each major/minor version of product.) Once you enable the feed management tools, you should fine VISA 19.5 feed, you will need to add another feed with same URL just 19.0 replacing the 19.5.

Run an admin command prompt at C:\Program Files\National Instruments\NI Package Manager\ with the command below:

nipkg.exe install ni-visa="19.0.0.49152-0+f0" --allow-downgrade

 

Also, you may want to kudo my idea as to allow downgrades from the NIPM GUI. 😁

 

 

__________________________________
Bill Eisenhower
Certified LabVIEW & TestStand Developer
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