[Yum] Distribution of packages

Robert G. Brown rgb at phy.duke.edu
Wed Sep 22 21:12:38 UTC 2004


I don't know why it has taken me so long, but it finally occurred to me
that it would be just smashin' brilliant to use yum as a distribution
mechanism for some GPL programs I have written and maintain and that are
used by various groups.  After all, any website (including a personal
one) is a potential yum repository, and it can take the guesswork out of
the entire update process for remote users.  They can either mirror the
mini-repository or point yum at it on their systems.

One thing that I'll likely need to publish on the page directing people
to the repository and new mechanism for distribution is a set of
yum.conf fragments suitable for the repository with various conditions
preset in them (so users don't at first have to figure out a lot about
yum to use it).  I expect that I can write these fragments easily
enough, but I thought I'd ask first to see if anybody on the list is
already doing this for a mini-repository and has good-lookin' fragments
that I can just hack to redirect to my mini-repository.

Ideally one would want something where e.g. I post to the program's
mailing list that a new update is available that fixes the following
bugs or has the following new features, where they can issue a yum
update program by hand OR otherwise trigger a general update at their
choice after suitable testing, and where they can easily back off to the
previous revision if they install it and it blows up.

This is just a bit different from the usual run of the mill usage of yum
to install/maintain a whole distro on a system it seems worth asking
before going ahead for any wisdom or experiences out there.

   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





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