do I gotta be root?

1. I was able to create RPMs and use yum-arch to create a repository and
use a local config file. I was happy. Now yum tells me I have to be root
to even do a list. I don't want to be root. I gotta be root to even get
a list? Is there any way around this? See machinations below...

2. Another thing I didn't expect was that I created the repository in a
local work area. I got all sorts of cache errors like 

yum -c $YUM_CONFIG list all
Gathering header information file(s) from server(s)
Server: experimental
Error - /home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/header.info cannot be found
Please ask your sysadmin to update the headers on this system.

I finally gave in and copied the header.info from where I yum-arch'ed
the repository to the cache directory. Why did I have to do that? What
is supposed to populate the cache area?

3. Can anyone recommend a reference? The FAQ, the man pages and
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/yum/ are not quite enough for me.


Thank you

>>> local config file

[main]
cachedir=/home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
errorlevel=2
logfile=/home/kgallie/YUM/log/yum.log
assumeyes=0
tolerant=1
pkgpolicy=newest
exactarch=1
distroverpkg=redhat-release
exclude=redhat-release autofs kernel kernel-smp kernel-unsupported
kernel-smp-unsupported

# we expire our metadata in 60 seconds since we deal with small
# repositories and want to ensure that new data is always pulled down.
metadata_expire=60

[stable]
name=experimental
baseurl=file:///home/kgallie/dev/RPMTEST/work/REPO/x86_64
enabled=1


>>> machinations from #1

yum -d 10 -c $YUM_CONFIG list all
Gathering header information file(s) from server(s)
Server: experimental
CacheDir: /home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable
Using cached header.info file
headerinfofn: /home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/header.info
Finding updated packages
Downloading needed headers
Error deleting cachedb lockfile: [Errno 13] Permission denied:
'/usr/lib/rpmdb/x86_64-redhat-linux/redhat//__db.001'
localhdrpath=
/home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/headers/try_1-0-4.1-2.x86_64.hdr for
try_1 x86_64
Cannot download
file:///home/kgallie/dev/RPMTEST/work/REPO/x86_64/headers/try_1-0-4.1-2.
x86_64.hdr in caching only mode or when running as non-root user.
Deleting entry from Available packages
localhdrpath=
/home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/headers/try_4-0-3.0-9.x86_64.hdr for
try_4 x86_64
Cannot download
file:///home/kgallie/dev/RPMTEST/work/REPO/x86_64/headers/try_4-0-3.0-9.
x86_64.hdr in caching only mode or when running as non-root user.
Deleting entry from Available packages
localhdrpath=
/home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/headers/try_2-0-3.0-1.x86_64.hdr for
try_2 x86_64
Cannot download
file:///home/kgallie/dev/RPMTEST/work/REPO/x86_64/headers/try_2-0-3.0-1.
x86_64.hdr in caching only mode or when running as non-root user.
Deleting entry from Available packages
localhdrpath=
/home/kgallie/YUM/cache/yum/stable/headers/try_3-0-3.0-1.x86_64.hdr for
try_3 x86_64
Cannot download
file:///home/kgallie/dev/RPMTEST/work/REPO/x86_64/headers/try_3-0-3.0-1.
x86_64.hdr in caching only mode or when running as non-root user.
Deleting entry from Available packages
nulist = 0
uplist = 0
newlist = 0
obsoleting = 0
obsoleted = 0
Looking in Available Packages:
No Packages Available to List
Looking in Installed Packages:
Name                                Arch   Version                  Repo

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