On 3/29/06, seth vidal <skvidal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > wouldn't that mean you'd need a hostname and txt entry for each > repository on a server? Even worse, you'd need one for any software package. :-) But that would not be a problem: The server could serve its replies from a single large text file, or at least from one text file per repository, however you like it. I see other problems, though: - Software package names aren't made for mapping to DNS names. I'd strongly suspect that one would run into problems, sooner or later. - DNS is quite an unusual technology for these kind of things. While people are used to running an HTTP or FTP mirror, it would be quite difficult to convince them that they'd need to run a DNS server. - The length of host names in DNS is restricted to, I believe, 255 characters. (Any- one said "C"? :-) I'd expect that such a system would require looong names, sooner, or later. - A single DNS lookup is fast, of course. However, I do not see that a single lookup could be sufficient for yum. The typical operations (update and install) require checking of dependencies, aka header files. And these *must not* be transferred via a series of UDP packets. Personally, I'd propose a different approach. While up-to-date versions do really matter when I am fetching security updates, they are typically less important when doing an "install". It could be configurable, how frequently yum updates its cached lists, depending on the operation. For example, I could configure "every time" for "update", and "two weeks" for "install". Jochen -- Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. (Mark Twain)