[Yum] Feature request(s)

[Steve Traylen]

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003, Jeremy Katz wrote:

> On Tue, 2003-10-07 at 17:28, Christopher C. Weis wrote:
> > 2) The ability to download, but not install, RPMs, using Yum.
> 
> To throw my $0.02 out there for the heck of it.  
> 
> I think this is an option that has very little use.  FTP clients, web
> browsers, and mirroring programs all exist for a reason.  I have yet to
> see a convincingly good reason as to why a package updater should
> replicate this functionality.
> 
> I've heard a few reasons, and all of them seem ... questionable, at
> least to me.  Here's the sample of the ones I remember:
> 1) "I want to evaluate the package before I install it" -- I fail to see
> how having a binary package can help with that.  Downloading the src.rpm
> and diffing the contents, sure.  But not the binary RPM.  Changelogs
> don't nearly have the information you want here.
> 2) "I want to test it on another box first" -- Why not use yum on the
> other box and download it and test it there.  
> 3) "I don't trust the code which installs packages" -- Then stop using
> it.
> 4) "Other programs that update packages have it" -- Some of them have
> also corrupted rpmdbs in the past, that doesn't mean it's a good idea ;)

For my 2 pence worth I'll add a 5)

With a large group of machines I want to be able to randomise the download
of packages overnight and actually do the upgrade in one 
go in a small time period when I am at work and around to deal with
the consequences.

My ideal would be a

yum -d update

which would just download the packages required for an update.
and a 

yum clean oldpackages

that would delete rpms from the cache that were no longer needed for
an update.

With this I have on the local filesystem system all the packages I need
to run the actuall update which will now be a very quick and uniform
operation.

 Steve






> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jeremy
> 
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-- 
Steve Traylen
s.traylen at rl.ac.uk
http://www.gridpp.ac.uk/