[Yum] server vs. repository?

[Robert G. Brown]

On Mon, 22 Sep 2003, Joseph Tate wrote:

> Robert P. J. Day wrote:
> 
> >  there seems to be a subtle but constant confusion between what is a yum
> >"server" and a yum "repository".  from an earlier doc, i thought a
> >"repository" was the physical server, and the "server"  was the unique
> >URL.  so that a repository could handle multiple servers.
> >
> >  can someone clarify this?  as "man yum.conf" refers to "server" entries
> >in that file, while http://linux.duke.edu/projects/yum/repos/ refers to
> >repositories.  this is just the sort of thing that will drive someone
> >a bit nuts if the terminology keeps bouncing back and forth.
> >
> >rday
> >
> >  
> >
> Not that my opinion matters, but I thought that server was any machine 
> that served up repositories.  As you can have different servers with 
> different repositories, or multiple repositories on one server, they 
> really could be used interchangeably.  A repository is a URL where there 
> is a headers folder and various RPMS under sub folders of that URL.  Any 
> references to a server should be removed in favor of repository 
> however.  As yum no longer needs to go over http/ftp/etc.  Yum now 
> supports the file:/// protocol as far as I can remember.

It's not clear that this is the precise delineation in the docs.  In man
yum.conf, for example, a server section begins with [servername] (which
appears to be completely arbitrary -- a tag name you give to the
repository image being used).  However, baseurl can now have several
entries -- primary and fallbacks.

What exactly is server and repository here?  It appears that "server" is
used as a label for a particular repository image (which may exist on
several physical servers).  This isn't inconsistent with what you say --
baseurl points to a repository, not a server.  However, it isn't clear
what to name [server] to make its function clear, as a single [server]
entry can clearly point to multiple (physical) servers or even to
multiple repositories (defined as URLs) on a single server if one ever
has a reason to do such a thing (and with the need for occasional ssh
pipes to get at restricted repositories, it actually might).

I'd like a delineation that permits the following to be distinctly
described:

  [repository label]

(currently [server]).  This is nothing but a tag in yum.conf that lets
you refer to a particular (set of) repository(s) by a single label, and
is also used to create/reference caches drawn from the (set of)
repository(s).

  server.  The physical server of a repository.  This is because in
startup documentation one does need to say things like "set up a
web/ftp/nfs/whatever server" and have people know what you mean.  I
agree, though, that yum documentation should ONLY use server for this
purpose and never where repository is meant.

  repository.  This is a URL.  Implicitly in much usage, it is a URL
with a header directory on which yum-arch has been run that contains
rpm's somewhere in its tree.

Under the active prodding of the Day ;-) I've started to work on the
HOWTO again (at least I have moved it up in my triage queue). Mostly
today I'm just converting the existing man pages into HOWTO form so that
the content of man yum.conf can be found in the howto as well.  The
HOWTO is not particularly consistent with regards to the above
distinction, but I'd be happy to change it so that it is.

   rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu