Judging from recent discussions on this list, it seems that many are still confused about configuring their yum.conf files, and about all the different repositories out there.
With the new /etc/yum.repos.d this will be less of an issue. install a noarch rpm that puts the repo in /etc/yum.repos.d
I was wondering if there was something that could be done to yum itself (either the client program itself, or the format of yum repositories) to make this easier.
Well, people could read the instructions.
But each repo having a simple noarch rpm that installs a single file in repos.d will go a long way.
2. Yum repositories should be able to announce that they are
dependent on other yum repositories: if I sign up to Livna.org
I
am then automatically signed up to Fedora.us.
No.
livna specifically states you need fedora.us - and that's the way it should be. Do not automagically add any repos.
3. If 1. can be implemented, then I think the GPG key of the
repository should automatically be installed
No. a gpg key should be installed only by the system administrator.
What should happen is the Fedora base gpg key is installed at install, and by default yum requires gpg key.
Then when you add fedora.us and rpm.livna.org - installing packages via yum will fail if you don't have the gpg key. But they should not be auto installed. The info page for the repository should point to where it is at.
4. I shouldn't need to alter my yum.conf when I upgrade to a new
version of FC -- yum should determine which version of FC I am
running
It already has that capability. I don't remember if it uses it or not, but yum has ability to get version info from /etc/redhat-release
5. I should be able to subscribe to a repository from the command
line without manually editing yum.conf (i.e. something like
"yum
subscribe rpm.livna.org").
I'm not a yum developer - but I am planning to sort of add this to yum (as soon as I feel comfortable with python) by Elektrifying yum - so that yum can use the elektra registry for repositories.
But anyway - what you describe can already be done with current yum - wget location/fc3/repo.conf && mv repo.conf /etc/yum.repos.d/
6. There should be some way of distinguishing between a
repository
that is part of Fedora Core, or Fedora Extras or Fedora
Alternatives. Subscribing to a repository from Fedora
Alternatives should warn the user of potential problems.
Fedora Core should not show bias towards fedora.us repository.
However - I think it would be nice to warn when packages installed by Fedora Core are set to be replaced by non Fedora Core packages.
That though would require the vendor tag be used, that's the best way to do that - through rpm and not yum - though yum would have to catch rpm's warning and inform the user.
In fact - that would be nice in general.
That would be a nice enhancement to rpm - a config file option to have rpm reject updates to a package that are not from the same vendor, and tie the gpg sig to the vendor.
Can rpm do this now?
