On 6/28/2010 11:24 AM, Whit Blauvelt wrote:
No, the fact that your ability to 'yum update' and have the right thing happen is broken is a big problem regardless of who/where you ask for help. Even if you break it yourself, it is bad that it is broken.
As much as I would rather do something myself, at times, Les is right. If you get a job offer somewhere else, suddenly, think of the next person who has to maintain this.
That's why I always thoroughly log all stuff installed by hand, along with extra configuration steps taken with RPM-installed items, and make sure the log's someplace where the next person can find it. In our case we maintain wikis for this sort of thing. It would be nice if there were a standard for where such notes should be left on the systems themselves. Not aware that there is one, though.
The standard place is for the rpm database to hold the list of files in each package and to the extent possible values for local config options to be split out as a file under /etc/sysconfig and somehow merged at runtime. And the standard for documentation would be matching man pages included in the package.
The piece you might be missing is avoiding replacing any rpm-managed file with your own. Or putting your own files in places that might conflict with subsequently installed rpms.