then the outstanding question is how to figure out why certain
packages are not being updated.
Well, first action: did you actually check with the repo that there is a newer package?
Yes. I'm not sure why would you think otherwise...?
Just because a package isn't updated doesn't mean it's not working.
I *do* think the updater is working, judging from my logwatch emails. But it's quite clear that some packages, clamav being the example here, are definitely not being updated.
Especially in the case of clamav I think you haven't done the obvious.
Why do you say that? What is the obvious? Checking for an update?
Perhaps what would clear this up for you is to note that this is an ongoing issue, not anything *right now*. That is, I've watched clam tell me via logwatch that it is out of date for weeks at a time before I finally go log in and run "yum update clamav" on the command line, which updates things nicely as expected. So clearly in those cases there IS an update available (I also check via "yum info" before the update).
So while *some* packages get updated automatically by some mystery process that no one here seems to know about (??), some *do not*.
Please don't take me wrong; I'm grateful for the help, but while I'm not a highly skilled sysadmin, I'm not asking entirely bonehead questions I think. Correct me if I'm wrong though! :-)