[CentOS] Why is yum not liked by some?

Thu Sep 8 18:07:59 UTC 2005
Johnny Hughes <mailing-lists at hughesjr.com>

On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 12:35 -0500, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, 2005-09-08 at 11:53, William Hooper wrote:
> > >
> > > Does anyone delete released packages from repositories?
> >
No ... but, we only maintain the latest released ISO (centos point
release) and updates to it in the main-line tree.

This is the one that we push all over the world.  It is about 50GB.

There is also a http://vault.centos.org/ where all the old stuff is
located. That one does not get mirrored everywhere, but has old
(archived) software and ISOs. (This one is about 150GB and growing ...
and we would have problems having it mirrored everywhere).

So, all the old packages (anything released by CentOS), is available via
vault.centos.org.

>  
> > I know there have been more than two errata versions of httpd for RHEL 3,
> > but I only see two in the CentOS updates repo.
> 
> I think Centos is a special case where the repositories shift for the
> point releases and only contain the updates past the versions on
> the rebuilt isos.  I've had a few surprises from this, but they
> would not have been reduced by having local snapshots.
> 

> > >  I'm looking for something like a tag that can be applied to a
> > > CVS repository that would be applied by
> > > someone who knows the state is consistent and can be used by anyone else to
> > > retrieve exactly that state regardless of ongoing changes.
> > 
> > Again, if you run the repository, you get to decide on the changes.
> 
> But you would have to install all of your own spec files and build
> all the rpms so you control the dependencies for that to help.  The
> point of using a distribution that has official updates is to
> let someone else do that.  I just want my update tool to be able
> to know when they have completed a consistent set of those
> changes - or that the mirror I'm pulling from has the consistent
> set available.
> 
Yum is quite capable of doing what you want to do.

You just can't use the feature update or upgrade, instead you can pass
in a version number when doing installs.

yum install kernel-2.6.9-5.0.5.EL

will install that kernel version.

You will have issues if we move to a new point release, because you
might not have access to that kernel any longer, except via
vault.centos.org

So, seriously, the best thing would be for you to create a directory
that contains all your RPMS ... you put only the ones that you have
approved in there.  (You do not need to build anything from SRPMS).  You
make that accessible from the web and run createrepo on it.

You point your yum to it from all your machines.

You only put authorized RPMS in there, and you rerun createrepo every
time you put a new RPM in there.

You run auto YUM updates on your machines, pointing to your repo, where
you only put the RPMS that you are happy with.

You didn't have to build anything, nor do you have any problems with
RPMS not being available.

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