Hello YUM mailing list, For package policy options, in addition to "newest" and "last", how about "n days old", where "n" is an integer typed into yum.conf? Take 10 days as an example. This change could allow more systems to automate the update process -- run YUM as a cron job. The idea is that if an updated package has been out there for (say) 10 days without any superseding update, it is unlikely to have a major problem. I am associated with the cAos distribution, which uses YUM. I was drawn to cAos in large part because it uses YUM and can automate the update process. I wrote a YUM HowTo to explain setting YUM up for automatic updates. http://www.caosity.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=102&op=page&SubMenu= After putting it up there and drawing attention to it, I immediately came under attack from those who maintain that updates should never be automated. In comparison, the book "Red Hat Linux Internet Server" by Paul G. Sery & Jay Beale, published by RedHat Press in 2003, says this on page 405: "The principle [sic] strength of automating any part of the process is that your systems get updated more uniformly and more often. We see too many compromised systems that would have been safe if they'd just had the latest fixes to not mention this benefit! So, while you should still be cautious with any automated update solution on production systems, this one is definitely worth checking out." My proposal would not work for all systems, but could work for systems using common hardware without any specialized kernel or application modifications. For what it is worth, I will be attempting to write a HOWTO explaining the options in yum.conf. (I am a Python newbie -- I have read a couple of books, and I am reading another, but I have not yet written code that does anything. At some point in the future, I could try modifying YUM myself, but I am not there yet.) Thanks for YUM. Rick Graves gravesricharde@xxxxxxxxx
