[Spacewalk-list] libxml2-python and kickstart

[Faye Salwin]

Centos6 updates contains libxml2-python and Spacewalk pulls THAT version (as it is the latest available version within any child channels of the selected distribution) of the RPM when building kickstart files instead of a package from a channel enabled for kickstart (The Java code pulls these files using the "file download url")

This works:
http://x.x.x.x/download/package/2ca68cda56a77523c946e69ca5dc8d34e0f45f01/0/1/885/libxml2-python-2.7.6-8.el6_3.4.x86_64.rpm http://x.x.x.x/download/package/1e2379d4dadc3fef16c422d3aa705ff83264b469/0/1/5811/pyOpenSSL-0.10-2.el6.x86_64.rpm http://x.x.x.x/download/package/704fdbe78c79726bab6d1e5f8461045ef7f0a194/0/1/11132/rhnlib-2.5.55-1.el6.noarch.rpm 
rpm -Uvh --replacepkgs --replacefiles /tmp/rhn_rpms/optional/pyOpenSSL* /tmp/rhn_rpms/optional/rhnlib* /tmp/rhn_rpms/optional/libxml2-python* 

If the Updates repo is disabled in the kickstarter, but available as a child channel of the install tree, then libxml2-python fails to install as it cannot supply the dependencies to libxml2-python (*12-el6_4*) which are in the Updates repo too.

I have read that one shouldn't enable the Updates Repo during Kickstart, but if I do not delete libxml2-python from the updates repo then a kickstart which does not include the updates repo will fail.  If I do install the updates repo to kickstart then it will lag the install for a long time while it tries and retries to access a comps file which does not exist. (there are comps files for EPEL and Spacewalk which I have to include during kickstart to install the rhn_client, rhncfg-client etc.  I have restricted EPEL to only those packages which the Spacewalk repo depends upon.  I believe that the kickstart will continue to function from the time that libxml2-python from updates is added until the kickstart profile is updated at which point it will re-evaluate the includes.  It doesn't seem like a good solution to delete libxml2-python every time you update kickstart and then re-sync.

What is the best practice here?  Should I kickstart from a tree with updates present?  What happens about the Comps (groups file) in this case?  I've also noticed that cloning child channels (using the manage channel lifecycle script at least) does not clone the RHNCHANNELCOMPS row that is relevant which caused me a few frustrations early on.

Is it not possible to kickstart just one distribution & channel selection and then switch parent channels at activation time?  That would simplify a lot of the workflow (perhaps allow you to have a single kickstart for all your lifecycle locations and validate that the parent channel is a clone of the one you are activating?)

Why does the Kickstart file create java code include files that are from repos not included in the kickstart channels?  I am guessing it is so that you don't have to include the spacewalk repo as a child, but if you don't do that, it can't find rhnreg_ks for example (unless you use one of the many workarounds that have been posted in this list eg. tar ball of spacewalk files)

It is entirely possible that I am just "doing it wrong" in which case a pointer to best practice would be appreciated.

Thanks


Faye

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