Kam Leo wrote: >> I asked a while ago if there was any way >> of only downloading a package once >> and then installing it on several machine, >> and I was advised that the yum-downloadonly plugin >> would serve this purpose. > You do not need the yum-downloadonly plugin. Edit /etc/yum.conf and > change "keepcache=0" to "keepcache=1". All the rpms that yum downloads > will remain in the /var/cache/yum directories (separate directory for > each repo) until you dispose of them (yum clean packages, rm xxx, mv > yyy, etc.). > > If you want other machines on your network to be able to use those > downloaded rpm files copy or move them to another directory, e.g. your > localrepo directory. Thanks very much to you and the other responders. Having read all the suggestions, what I'm proposing is: 0. Set keepcache=1 in /etc/yum.conf on each machine . 1. Soft-link /var/cache/yum on each machine to /common/yum , where /common is NFS-shared by all my computers. 2. Now on each machine run - perhaps daily - yum localupdate /common/yum/*.rpm yum update 3. Every week run "yum clean cache" on the machine carrying /common . I'd be interested to know what the experts think of this proposal. -- Timothy Murphy e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366 s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland