[CentOS] Most efficient way to create a CentOS 3 test VM

Tue Nov 26 22:09:30 UTC 2013
Lars Hecking <lhecking at users.sourceforge.net>

> What I'm hoping for is some way to get a "CentOS 3.10", being 3.9 with 
> the vault updates directory contents merged in.
> 
> Is there a straightforward way to do that, or is schlepping around 
> folders full of RPMs actually the best way to go?
 
 Yes, it can be done. I did it a while back, but don't remember all the details.

 I merged the updates into the distribution, plus a few yum-related packages
 from centosplus. I *think* I hacked up a comps.xml to create the yum metadata
 with createrepo, but that's only half the story. You also need to update the
 hdlist and hdlist2 files with /usr/lib/anaconda-runtime/pkgorder and
 genhdlist. There are pitfalls. Best thing is to build a 3.9 vm from just
 the base package and then create all the metadata files on it from the
 combined repo.