[Yum] Re: yum] How do I get yum to mirror an RPM repository?

[Michael Stenner]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2003 at 11:17:02AM -0500, Troy Dawson wrote:
> R P Herrold wrote:
> > On 28 Jul 2003, Angel Gabriel wrote:
> >>And is it possible to still do system installs via NFS on a yum
> >>repository?
> > 
> > 
> > An archive usable to yum does not necessarily carry the 
> > 'anaconda' images needed for such installations.
> 
> So to expand what Russ said,
> If the area was able to do a NFS install before it was a yum archive, it still 
> can, if the area was not able to do a NFS install before it was a yum archive, 
> it still can't.
> Here at Fermilab, our main yum archives are the same place where we install 
> from, so it is possible to do both.

To expand on Tony's expansion on what Russ said...

The nice thing about yum repositories is that they are just a
web/ftp/file directory with a few other files added.  Because yum
doesn't really care WHERE you put those extra files (see the yum-arch
manpage for details) it's very easy to "overlay" the yum metadata on a
structure that was really meant originally to do something else.

What most people do is take a RHL directory structure and add the yum
metadata to it (via yum-arch).  This allows you to keep all of the RHL
functionality and ADD yum functionality.  This also has the benefit of
not forcing you to keep two copies of all the rpms around.

yum has nothing to do (directly, anyway) with installing a box from
scratch, so it doesn't help you.  However, it doesn't get in the way,
either.  It's just not relevant.  As Russ points out, though, many yum
repositories are only intended to have a few "add-on" packages and are
nowhere near a full installable distribution.  This makes sense if you
get used to the idea of "subscribing" to multiple repositories.

Anyone want to expand on what I just said? :)

					-Michael
-- 
  Michael Stenner                       Office Phone: 919-660-2513
  Duke University, Dept. of Physics       mstenner at phy.duke.edu
  Box 90305, Durham N.C. 27708-0305