How to merge multipel yum caches and cache portability

[Arthur Pemberton]

Phil Schaffner wrote:

>On Mon, 2005-05-16 at 22:00 -0400, Arthur Pemberton wrote: 
>  
>
>>How would I go about merging the /var/cache/yum/ of multiple, up-to-date 
>>machines ? And how portable is this folder? Can I just copy it to 
>>another machine?
>>
>>I just installed FC3, and haven't spend almost the entire day 
>>downloading updates. I going to install FC3 on another machien soon, 
>>which may or maynto eb attached to my network, so I would like to be 
>>able to just burn the cache to acdrom, adn then copy it to another machine.
>>    
>>
>
>Many ways to skin that cat (all equally odious to the cat).  Here's an
>approach..
>
>Assumptions:
>
>1.  All machines are networked i386 arch machines (client1 .. client N).
>2.  One is set up as an NFS server (lets call it server1), has exported
>a filesystem (e.g /share) with room for all the updates, and you have
>mounted it on all the clients as /share.
>
>On all machines, create a file in /etc/yum.repos.d called local.repo
>containing:
>
>[local]
>name=Fedora Local $releasever - $basearch
>baseurl=file:/share/yum/fedora/$releasever/updates/$basearch/
>enabled=1
>
>On server1:
># mkdir -p /share/yum/fedora/3/updates/i386
># yum install createrepo
>  (if not already there)
>
>Start:
>For X = 1 to N {
>
>Log on to clientX.  Following is one logical line...
>
># rsync --archive --verbose /var/cache/yum/updates-released/packages/\
>/share/yum/fedora/3/updates/i386
>
>}
>
>On server1:
># rsync --archive --verbose /var/cache/yum/updates-released/packages/\
>/share/yum/fedora/3/updates/i386
># createrepo /share/yum/fedora/3/updates/i386
>
>Run "yum update" on all machines.
>
>GoTo Start
>
>Will end up with obsolete files in the updates directory as time goes
>on, but yum handles that OK.  Can do manual cleanup if space is tight.
>
>Extensible to x86_64, ppc, etc.
>
>Could also write files to removable media, consolidate on a CD, and
>mount on each machine - just adjust the path in the [local] repo entry.
>Can sync updates directory with a mirror server, rather than from each
>machine, but you will likely be downloading things you won't need.
>
>Phil
>
>
>
>  
>
A few questions:
1) I am most interested in savign the files to a removable media such as 
cdrom: would I createrepo before or after coping to cd?
2) Do I adjust the yum congs to only have my repo? O do I just ad my 
repo and leave the others alone.
3) If I don't remove the other repos, how does yum know to take the 
package from the hdd/cdom, and not download it from the net?

Thanks for your time.