Monitoring RHN for updates

Hello people,

Working on my project, i have come up with a standalone python script,
that monitors up2date servers (for example RHN) for new packages being
released for your machines. I realize that RHN sends you emails every
time new errata updates are released for your machines, but
if you try to maintain a complete repository of up2date redhat packages,
then these notifications may not be enough, since RHN will only tell you
about updates for machines that are registered with RHN, and let's face it,
we are here about about machines that are NOT !

Anyway, the script itself is less then 100 lines, but serios work has been
put into it. This script is simple and powerful. Basically, it iterates
through
a directory structure containing system id files and the url of the server
to
connect to, executes "up2date.login" to the server with the systemid
provided, and stores state about clannels available for that system id, and
their update dates. When a channel is updated, a mail message will be sent
to box administrator.

The configuration is also simple, it's a matter of copying the script to
your system, setting up a basic directory structure containing the systemid
files of the systems you would like to monitor updates for them, and setting
up a cron job that will check RHN for updates every few hours. A detailed
installation and configuration procedures are currently commented into the
beginning of the script, so please "less nrh-watch-updates" to read it.

The next NRH-up2date release will include this script as an integral part,
right now i am releasing it as a standalone package to get some feedback,
and because i believe that "Current" users might also benefit from such
functionality.

If you try it, please tell me if you have any problems, or if it has been
useful for you - your feedback always helps.

You can download the script at
http://www.nrh-up2date.org/download/addons/nrh-watch-updates-1.0.tar.gz

Alex K