[Yum] Request for comment -- repository-level redirects

[Eric S. Raymond]

One of the major problems with yum as it is now is that yum configuration
(specifying the set of repos you will query) is complicated.  Yum users
typically have to patch their local config whenever either (a) the
dependency relationship between two repos changes, or (b) they want to
add a new specialized repo (as, for example, the RealPlayer repo).

I think there is a simple added feature that would make life a great
deal less complicated for users: repository-level redirects.  That is, it
should be possible for a a repository to say "if I don't have the
package you want and it matches a specified regexp, I'll chase this
specified list of URLS to build a set of other repos to try".

With this feature, livna could redirect to .US and .US to
fedoraproject.org, which could in turn redirect to special-purpose
sites like the RealPlayer repo -- all transparently to the yum user. 

Users would subscribe to an entire chain of repositories by putting
the head end of the chain in their conf file.  Repository rings like
rpmforge.net could redirect to each other.

When the repository relationships change, a repo administrator could change
a redirect in one place, rather than all yum users having to change
their conf files.

Thoughts?
-- 
		<a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>