Re: Install of all packages

On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 17:00, Hunter Matthews wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-07-17 at 05:28, John HEARNS wrote:
> > Dear All,
> > me again. Sorry - you must be sick of my questions!

> > Say I create a package called CERN-CC-package
> > I then put it in the appropriate (...addon) directory then re-create the
> > channel.  So far, so good.
> > However, up2date -u does not automatically install a package which is
> > not already on the system.
> > I've tried wildcards like   up2date --nox -u *  which doesn't work.
> 
> No, you would need something more like
> up2date $(up2date --showall | grep cern-cc)
> 
> or whatever. But I don't recommend that due to the vagaries of what
> kinds of matches you can get there. See below for one potential
> work-around.
> 
> 
> > I'm no Python hacker - but I will try to look in the sources of up2date.
> 

Thanks for your kind and prompt reply.

> In RHN, you would log into the admin pages on the web, and use that
> interface to "add" packages to machines or group machines.
> 
> That would cause an add "action" to be stored in the database, and the
> next time rhn_check (which is all rhnsd does: run rhn_check approx.
> every 2 hours) ran, it would see some actions in the database, and would
> perform them, and report the results.
> 
> Unfortunately, none of what I just described is implemented in current
> yet. Its all waiting on the sql backend integration.
> 
> What I do here at my site to approximate that is:
> 
> Create a biology-base (and in our case biology-workstation) package.
> This package contains _nothing_ except a "version" file in /etc, similar
> to /etc/redhat-release. However, it requires several other packages in
> the tree. (In our case, all of ssh, joe, gromit, couple other things).
> 
> The workstation package includes all the scientific software I've rpm'd
> for our department.
> 
Good idea.
This is something like the "task-x" or "task-complete" ipkg for
the Familiar iPAQ distribution.
As an aside, Familiar iPAQ uses a dpkg like package management
called ipkg. Works fine - ipkg update/upgrade etc.
There are packages like 'task-x' which work by 'wrapping up'
a whole series of packages to comprise a working X install, for
instance.

Looks like your suggestion is the way to go, but as you explain
its not the most elegant.

> 
> This isn't NEARLY as good as what RHN does. RHN is a precision weapon.
> This is a nuke. Like nukes, it has side effects. Our plan is to fully
> add this kind of functionality to current, but John and I only move so
> fast.
Why apologise? No-one should 'expect' anything of you.
You've already worked hard on a very useful tool!