Yum, Proxy Cache Safety, Storage Backend

[chasd]

Les Mikesell wrote:

> Getting a bit off the original topic here, but the "other" thing I've
> always wished yum could do is "repeatable" updates.  That is, the
> ability to update one machine, test some things, then update  
> another and
>   get only the same set of changes even if some newer packages had  
> been
> subsequently added to the repos.

To me, that isn't functionality for the client, it is functionality  
for the server / cache.
It is a feature of WSUS - the ability to approve updates and only  
allow clients to "see" the approved ones and not any other.

Right now, there isn't a lot of intelligence built into the server  
end ( MirrorManager excepted ) of the update process. The  
repositories serve static files, that's it. Fedora can't ask any more  
from mirrors. If in your environment you want to control how clients  
get updated, then it makes sense to me that centralized control from  
the server side and keeping the client side "dumb" is better. You  
only have to distribute the repo configuration to use the controlled  
repo once, instead of distributing specific update lists continually.

That control is one of the reasons why as an admin I am interested in  
InstantMirror and this discussion.


Charles Dostale