[Yum-devel] Repository management

[seth vidal]

> etc.  The URL in the first case is likely just to a .repo file, but
> there may be a need for meta data describing a repo that doesn't exist
> purely in the repo itself, so maybe another format... though I tend to
> like not creating new file formats myself.

the file format that yum currently uses is configParser with some
enhancements. Specifically the include= directive for heredoc'ing files
into place in any of the repo files.

This was put in to address the need for users to do rather involved
config files and have the config files filled out from cgis.

any tool that manages the .repo files is going to have to be able to
play reasonably nice with that or at least sensibly bail out when it
encounters it. 

That's one of the reasons why I've never looked into implementing it b/c
it gets sticky rewriting those files out.

> The key thing yum brings as I see it is easy addition (and updating)
> of software.  I'd like to see adding a new repo to be as easy as
> typing 'yum install xine'.  I know it's a bit... frilly?... but this
> kind of thing goes a good distance in making it easier for users of
> yum (both end users and software distributors) to get more of the
> software they like.

adding repos is fine, though to be blunt adding a repo can be as trivial
as: wget url://to/repo/file

or the equivalent in code.


> Such a tool could exist outside of yum, I suppose, but I see it having
> much more value inside of it.  I'd be willing to do the work (not that
> I see there being much), but only if there is agreement people would
> find this useful.  I'm just posting here right now but perhaps it
> would be better on fedora-devel-list?

the question I always ask is who is this really serving? Who benefits by
adding yet-another-command to the cli? Is it very difficult to add
repositories and if it not difficult is it something that has to be done
very often?

I'm not necessarily against it but I'm trying to figure out the net
benefit for maintaining the code. I think it's a fair question to ask.

-sv