[Gllug] RPMs and Rsync

[John Hearns]

On Fri, 2003-03-07 at 09:15, Mick Farmer wrote:
> Dear GLLUGers,
> 
> I have three identical machines that run RH 8.0 with
> upgrades using RPMs.  Would it be possible to make one
> machine the master (i.e. only apply rpm updates to that
> machine) and keep the other two in sync using rsync?
>
> My worry is that RPMs do more than replace files and that
> rsync might miss something.  Perhaps there's something
> better than rsync that I've not thought about.

I think one answer to this is that installing an RPM also updates the
RPM database.
There are also preinstall and postinstalll steps in an RPM which would
not be run. (Things like maybe backing up old config files or whatever.)
IMHO, not running these steps is a bad idea, as the RPM builder probably
did a lot of work on them.
I guess you COULD use rsync, then rebuild your RPM database every time.
But that would give me the shivers, to be honest.
I'm sure an expert on the list will set me right, and say how this is
easy to do.
But see below!


If you have three machines, then maybe you should invest some time into
setting up your own server!
Th first thing you should look at is the current project, which is an
open source implementation of up2date and the RHN server:
http://current.tigris.org/

Or look at the apt-get machanism for Redhat systems,
http://www.freshrpms.net

Or the very promising new Fedora project http://fedora.mplug.org/
I don't think Fedora is ready for primetime yet - but the aims are very
good. They have a repository for 8.0 and 8.0.94


And there is also Yum from Duke, used more for cluster systems there
http://www.dulug.duke.edu/yum/


On balance, I would say you should take a serious look at current.
Get to know it, and test it out.
Then have a look at the apt for rpm based solutions.






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