I have a lab of Fedora systems and a server that supplies RPM updates & yum daily update works OK. Now I have 2 administration problems. 1. How can I have RPMS on the server be automatically INSTALLED, rather than updated? Suppose I learn of a new program that is not presently installed, and I want it "pushed out" to the workstations. ? 2. On my systems, I have various files that are customized for our site, such as /etc/hosts.deny and /etc/hosts.allow and some login stuff such as /etc/pam.d/system-auth or gdm/PreSession and so forth. If I want to customize those things, I currently use SSH to just copy around to all machines. However, now there are some machines that dual boot, and so I can't copy the files in there when the users are not in Linux, and I'd like to have the yum system update them when the PCs turn on. Aside from creating an RPM called "MySite" and putting each and every individual config file into it, and then putting an update of it on the server, I don't know what to do. 3. Sometimes the files I want to update or customize confict with an existing package. I've not tried it, but I'm afraid that if I try to run my MySite rpm update, then there will be a conflict with whatever package currently owns /etc/hosts.deny or /etc/pam.d/system-auth. See what I mean? How to replace via yum (which rejects conflicts and stops). Or for another example, consider a package that supplies a bad file, such as the bad Acrobat pdf reader line that does not work under FC6. The acroread script can be patched to work. As I write this question, I realize that I could address it by simply rebuilding RPMS for any packages in which I want to customize files. However, when Fedora issues updates, my customizations may be lost (depending on whether they are polite and leave *.rpmnew or *.rpmsave files. -- Paul E. Johnson Professor, Political Science 1541 Lilac Lane, Room 504 University of Kansas
