Yum cache regeneration

At the office I recently upgraded a machine to CentOS 5.2 from CentOS 4.7 (filesystem stayed intact). Everything was cool until I ran into a bit of an issue when attempting to update and regen the yum cache. I got a python traceback that looked like this:

# yum update
base      : ################################################## 2458/2458
update                    100% |=========================|  951 B    00:00
primary.xml.gz            100% |=========================| 242 kB    00:00
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
    yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 105, in main
    result, resultmsgs = base.doCommands()
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 289, in doCommands
    self._getTs()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 85, in _getTs
    self._getTsInfo()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/depsolve.py", line 91, in _getTsInfo
    self._tsInfo.setDatabases(self.rpmdb, self.pkgSack)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 537, in <lambda>
    pkgSack = property(fget=lambda self: self._getSacks(),
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/__init__.py", line 392, in _getSacks
    self.repos.populateSack(which=repos)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/repos.py", line 242, in populateSack
    sack.populate(repo, mdtype, callback, cacheonly)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/yum/yumRepo.py", line 168, in populate
    dobj = repo_cache_function(xml, csum)
  File "/usr/lib64/python2.4/site-packages/sqlitecachec.py", line 42, in getPrimary
    self.repoid))
TypeError: Can not prepare packages insertion: table packages has no column named location_base

Eeek! Got the same error when running yum makecache. Quick look at the traceback is somewhat obvious, the DB schema changed, but the DB didn’t get upgraded! Easy fix is to clear out your yum cache like so:

# cd /var/cache/yum
# rm -r *

And then you’ll want to regenerate your cache like so:

# yum makecache

Hope this helps anyone else who runs into this issue!