Simplifying RPM management with RHN/up2date, yum, apt, rcd, etc...

[William Hooper]

Exile In Paradise  said:
> Is there are simple way to get all of these various software update
> mechanisms moved into a single management app?  Does anyone know how to
> get all of the various sources "configured" under the same
> umbrella/front-end?

As shipped with Fedora Core 1, up2date and yum both talk to the same YUM
server for updates, so that is done.  The rhn_applet also checks this
server for updates.

Up2date does support apt repositories, but it looks like the rhn_applet
lacks that functionality:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=111759

> I see that up2date has a sources file that accepts both APT and YUM
> repository information, but I have seen in other emails on this list
> that some stunning breakage can occur if the the chicken-at-heart(me)
> go mucking around in there without a clear and precise definition of
> what needs to be added where.

I wouldn't call it any more dangerous than randomly adding a source to
either apt or YUM.

> If a repository is APT, it should be added to the apt.conf AND sources?
> If a repository is YUM, it should be added to the yum.conf AND sources?

Up2date and rhn_applet only look at /etc/sysconfig/rhn/sources.  apt and
yum only look at their respective conf files.

> What conflicts tend to come up using APT and YUM sources together?

This depends a lot on the sources.  If more than one source provides a
package then you might get a different package than you were expecting.

> Is there a list somewhere of all the apt, yum, etc repositories that are
> cooperating to ensure no conflicts occur in the rpms they are packaging
> that also shows what the correct/exact entries that needed to be added
> are?

IIUC, Fedora.us will become the "Fedora Extras".

Other repositories don't go out of their way to break things. 
Freshrpms.net, Dag's, Axel's, and Rudolf's repos generally work together
from what I hear (reference http://freshrpms.net/links/ ).  As in all
things, though, they may occasionally cause conflicts.  Watching the
Freshrpms-list will generally warn you about them.

> Being new to FC1, I am hesitant to add new sources to rhn/up2date and
> apt or yum without a clear idea of what channel names and such are
> supposed to be used.

Channel names are whatever you want to call them.  There isn't a rule that
says it must be anything, but I generally follow what the maintainer has. 
For example:
http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/1/i386/freshrpms becomes freshrpms
(as opposed to fedora-core-1 or fedora-core-updates-released).

--
William Hooper