how do i create a 'repodata' folder for a local yum repository ?

[Jeff Spaleta]

On Mon, 22 Nov 2004 13:07:55 +0000, Timothy Murphy
<tim at birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie> wrote:
> But could I nominate /var/cache/yum on my desktop as a yum repository,
> for use by other machines on my home LAN?

you can "nominate" any collection of rpms in any directory as a local
repository... once you learn how to use createrepo to generate
repository metadata.. and figure out how to share that directory via
ftp or http.

> 
> Incidentally, I haven't understood how one keeps the metadata
> on a local  repository up to date.
> Is one meant to run createrepo repeatedly?

Anytime you change the packages available in the repository...yes you
have to run createrepo.  That's sort of the point... the metadata is
an accurate representation of the packages available at that location.
You make any changes to the list of packages in the repository and you
regenerate the metadata.

If you mirror another repository and mirror all its packages and its
metadata, you don't have to do anything with createrepo...the
mirroring process if you do it correctly...keeps the metadata and the
package list in sync.

If you selectively pull packages from a repository into a local
directory, then you have to regenerate metadata with createrepo that
is specific to the small collection of packages you have locally if
you plan to use that local packagegroup as a repo. I'd like to point
out that yum's package cache is a selective pull of packages and is
not a complete mirror. If you plan to use yum's packace cache you need
to run createrepo against the directory to regenerate the metadata
everytime you cache a new update.

-jef