Topic: Web-based RPM management?

[Dan Brown]

I don't know how feasible this is, but it seems like it'd be a nice idea--could the e-smith-manager include some features for RPM management?  The simplest, I think, would be to provide for installing/upgrading RPMs (either accept a URL to download and install, or provide a way to upload to the server and install it).  Even better would be to give a list of installed files, and allow you to remove, get more information, etc.

I checked out freshmeat and didn't see any product to do this, but it seems like it should be do-able.  Of course, that's easy for me to say--I don't know anything about Perl.  It seems, though, that it shouldn't be too hard to come up with a page that would either (1) accept an upload of a file to the e-smith server, save that file in /tmp (or perhaps in /root), and then call rpm -U or rpm -i on that file; or (2) accept a URL in a text input, and then call rpm -U or rpm -i on that URL.  The query stuff would definitely get more involved.

I think this would be valuable in its own right, but it'd also be a big step toward some sort of automated update system, a la Windowsupdate.

[Luke Drumm]

Hi,

There are quite a few 'rpm update' packages floating around (in Perl on Freashmeat believe it or not ). The 'catch' tends to come, I think, more from the rpms themselves rather than the choice of distro' method.
E-smith, with its 'appliance/server' style make up, tends to be missing a fair whack of the compiler tools that your average package might be expecting in a RH6.1+ build machine.

On a side note:
What I think would be kind of cool in this area is a small perl proggy that can download and install a set of files listed in a text file. If an rpm download/install fails then retry it a few times before dying in a restoreable 'try later' state. That way some of your more 'tricky' E-smith contrib's could be automated to a fair extend. Given the scripted nature of the platform, one would think somebody could take this idea a lot further and get the installation of more of the contribs down to a few simple 'yes/no' style questions for the user.

Luke.

[Luiz]

Sorry, but off the topic I have installed Horde and cant get it to RELAY mail. It works fine for everything other than a remote user wanting to send mail. If you cant help thanks for reading if you can Have a Great Xmas:-) Sorry but I am desperate to get this working.