[Yum] A few simple questions

[seth vidal]

> I've seen folks structure their stock RPM repositories as "base" and
> "updates".  Is there some special reason to do it this way instead of
> keeping "base" updated constantly?  I install new machines from the
> same repository and I certainly want them to get the proper packages
> at install time rather than having to install them and then update
> them.

Mostly that is b/c that layout is what red hat does - base/stock distro
then an updates dir for the errata.

There is no compelling reason to keep that structure.

> What's the best way to maintain a set of "default packages" that can
> change over time?  Occasionally I need to add a package to the default
> set, and when I do this I need all of the machines on the network to
> install it automatically.  I know I can set up yumgroups.xml and do a
> "yum groupinstall blah", but that just installs what's in that group
> at that time.  If I add a package to the group I don't think the
> regular nightly update will grab it.

groupupdate will update groups - both versions of packages in those
groups and add any new packages.

It's not handled through an update but it's simple ebough to add to
/etc/cron.daily/yum



> So far I see two options: modify /etc/cron.daily/yum to do the
> groupinstall every night, or make a package that has nothing but
> dependencies and install it.  Then when I add a package I can update
> this RPM and the nightly update will take care of everything during
> dependency resolution.  Is there a simpler way?

The second option you've recommended is not terribly attractive imo and
can make things like obsoleting packages kinda ugly.


> Has anyone tried keeping laptops updated?  The problem I see is that
> they won't always be on the network, but I don't know how badly things
> will blow up when that happens.  I also can't do IP restrictions on
> the server and I'm not sure if I can do any kind of secure or
> authenticated HTTP to get the packages.
> 

yum supports https and authentication.

and laptops work fine.

I update my laptop that way :)

-sv