genhdlist? (was: Re: updating a distro tree)

[Klaus Steden]

> KS> could this script be used to incorporate third-party apps into a
> KS> distribution?
> 
> Assuming those apps are in the form of RPMS, you just need to put the
> packages into the RPMS directory and then run genhdlist and maybe
> pkgorder.  do_update normally does that if it updated any packages but
> you can force it with -G (or just look near the end of the script to
> see how to do it yourself).
> 
> But generally I prefer not to mess with adding extra applications to
> the install tree and instead put them in a yum repo to be installed in
> %post or on the first boot.
> 
I'm being a brave (foolish?) soul and am doing just that ... there's no yum in
EL4 (at least, I can't find one on the ISOs), so I'm bundling in APT instead.

Could someone out there possibly explain to me a little more about what
genhdlist does, and what its various options mean? It's got a  usage message,
no man page, no info page, and the only docs I've found online relate to RH7.2
and earlier.

Can someone shed some light on this mysterious-yet-essential application?

thanks,
Klaus