[Yum] Question/Suggestion

[Nathanael Noblet]

On Wednesday, August 4, 2004, at 09:09 PM, Garrick Staples wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 08:52:46PM -0700, Nathanael Noblet alleged:
>> Hello,
>> 	I just have a small question/suggestion for yum. I should say first
>> that I appreciate the fact that yum exists. The one thing that I could
>> use is something like a yum.d directory. Let me explain my problem,
>> perhaps there is already a solution that isn't being used that I 
>> could.
>> I use the distribution Tao-Linux which is a RHEL clone. It works great
>> for what I use it for. The one problem is that I have my own 
>> repository
>> for a select number of packages for a few of the systems. When the
>> distribution updates the tao-conf package, it replaces /etc/yum.conf,
>> which clobbers my additions to yum.conf. I thinking that having a
>
> Ignoring your suggestion about yum.d, and focusing on Tao breaking your
> yum.conf... here's a snippet from the Tao release notes, which 
> suggests that
> /etc/yum.conf is symlink that you are free to change.
>
>    To keep your Tao Linux system updated, I've added in 'yum' and 
> 'tao-yumconf'
>    packages. In the default installation, /etc/yum.conf is a symlink to
>    /etc/tao-yum.conf. The default config includes checking package 
> signatures, so
>    you won't be able to update untill you 'rpm --import
>    /usr/share/doc/tao-release-*/RPM-GPG-KEY-tao'. Then, running 'yum 
> update' will
>    update your system, and fail if signature checking fails.
>
>    From time to time, as official mirrors change, I will create new 
> (signed)
>    releases of tao-yumconf. However, I expect that some sysadmins will 
> break the
>    symlink and create their own /etc/yum.conf with local values. At 
> that point,
>    /etc/tao-yum.conf will be useful only as a reference.

I realize that, but it seems like a worse solution to me. With the 
directory of includable mirrors, you can have a distribution specific 
yum file that benefits from the updates (gaining mirrors, features like 
sign, and baseprotect etc) as well as not clobbering the system/network 
specific configurations.

In the tao linux method, regardless of whether I create my own yum.conf 
and change the symlink, or I edit the yum.conf file and add, any 
updates to the mirrors require me to login to every single machine, and 
update a single file. The included directory method, allows me to 
receive updates to the yum.conf file AND keep the system specific 
configuration without ever having to go in and change it.

So would this be a yum thing, or a distribution thing?

-- 
Nathanael D. Noblet
Gnat Solutions
412 - 135 Gorge Road E
Victoria, BC V9A 1L1

T/F 250.385.4613

http://www.gnat.ca/