Some thoughts about yum and repositories

[Michael A. Peters]

On 10/28/2004 11:14:17 AM, D. D. Brierton wrote:
> Judging from recent discussions on this list, it seems that many are
> still confused about configuring their yum.conf files, and about all
> the
> different repositories out there.

With the new /etc/yum.repos.d this will be less of an issue.
install a noarch rpm that puts the repo in /etc/yum.repos.d

> I was wondering if there
> was
> something that could be done to yum itself (either the client program
> itself, or the format of yum repositories) to make this easier.

Well, people could read the instructions.
But each repo having a simple noarch rpm that installs a single file in  
repos.d will go a long way.


>      2. Yum repositories should be able to announce that they are
>         dependent on other yum repositories: if I sign up to  
> Livna.org
> I
>         am then automatically signed up to Fedora.us.

No.
livna specifically states you need fedora.us - and that's the way it  
should be. Do not automagically add any repos.

>      3. If 1. can be implemented, then I think the GPG key of the
>         repository should automatically be installed

No. a gpg key should be installed only by the system administrator.
What should happen is the Fedora base gpg key is installed at install,  
and by default yum requires gpg key.

Then when you add fedora.us and rpm.livna.org - installing packages via  
yum will fail if you don't have the gpg key. But they should not be  
auto installed. The info page for the repository should point to where  
it is at.


>      4. I shouldn't need to alter my yum.conf when I upgrade to a new
>         version of FC -- yum should determine which version of FC I  
> am
>         running

It already has that capability. I don't remember if it uses it or not,  
but yum has ability to get version info from /etc/redhat-release

>      5. I should be able to subscribe to a repository from the  
> command
>         line without manually editing yum.conf (i.e. something like
> "yum
>         subscribe rpm.livna.org").

I'm not a yum developer - but I am planning to sort of add this to yum  
(as soon as I feel comfortable with python) by Elektrifying yum - so  
that yum can use the elektra registry for repositories.

But anyway - what you describe can already be done with current yum -
wget location/fc3/repo.conf && mv repo.conf /etc/yum.repos.d/

>      6. There should be some way of distinguishing between a
> repository
>         that is part of Fedora Core, or Fedora Extras or Fedora
>         Alternatives. Subscribing to a repository from Fedora
>         Alternatives should warn the user of potential problems.

Fedora Core should not show bias towards fedora.us repository.
However - I think it would be nice to warn when packages installed by  
Fedora Core are set to be replaced by non Fedora Core packages.

That though would require the vendor tag be used, that's the best way  
to do that - through rpm and not yum - though yum would have to catch  
rpm's warning and inform the user.

In fact - that would be nice in general.
That would be a nice enhancement to rpm - a config file option to have  
rpm reject updates to a package that are not from the same vendor, and  
tie the gpg sig to the vendor.

Can rpm do this now?