"It's equally possible to query an rpmdb, which is as centrally locatedas
local syslog files usually are, with the added benefit that all, not just
NVRA and
a time stamp, information regarding the installation state of packages is
available.
"
Ok, I am of the same opinion, naturally

But, Does this phrase alludes to instruments like RHN or zenworks or other ?
. If you could kindly supply a more explicit example for doing an centrally
located rpmdb, it would be of great aid.

Thanks


On Sat, Feb 23, 2008 at 4:28 AM, Jeff Johnson <n3npq@mac.com> wrote:

>
> On Feb 22, 2008, at 11:20 AM, devzero2000 wrote:
>
> yum, on top of rpm, already have this capability. I found this very useful
> , as i use a central syslog. So it
> is possible to query the central syslog for patch management information
> ex-post (e.g, if all the system have the same version applied).
>
>
> So use yum. No one is stopping you. What is your point?
>
> It's equally possible to query an rpmdb, which is as centrally located
> as local syslog files usually are, with the added benefit that all, not
> just NVRA and
> a time stamp, information regarding the installation state of packages is
> available.
>
> And if you're serious about package management on distributed
> clients then the contents of the package, not just the "version", need
> to be verified. There's too many side effects, with multilib and selinux
> in particular, for the NVRA & time stamp to be useful for much.
>
> I'm not saying that there isn't use in logging, but I see little reason
> (other as a historical archive of erasures, which --repackage already
> does, arguably at perhaps too great a cost) for duplicating information
> in Yet Another /var/log/rubbish file.
>
> No matter what, if one wants rpm logging, the implementation needs to be
> done
> more flexibly (by permitting choice of format and content and not only
> syslog
> as output transport), and done in rpmdb/rpmdb.c, not in lib/psm.c, because
> there is already an implementation there.
>
> 73 de Jeff
>
> But, it is only an opinion.
>
> On Thu, Feb 21, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Jeff Johnson <n3npq@mac.com> wrote:
>
> >
> > On Feb 21, 2008, at 3:44 PM, Per Øyvind Karlsen wrote:
> >
> > > Here's an improved and more upstream friendly version of syslog
> > > patch from
> > > Mandriva which adds logging of install/remove of packages to syslog.
> > >
> > > It will be disabled by default, but can be activated by
> > > %_log_to_syslog macro.
> > >
> > > Any objections of commiting or ideas of improvement?
> >
> > Yes.
> >
> > What needs doing is to add a "append-only" mode to log to file,
> > and a "use-syslog" flag to accomodate those that wish,
> > that delivers the results of a headerSprintf() queryformat to a log
> > file.
> >
> > Follow the (esentially) logging that already exists to populate /var/
> > cache/hrmib
> > for use by the net-snmp HR-MIB in rpmdbAdd/rpmdbRemove to see
> > where the configurable logging needs to be done.
> >
> > And imho, logging +foo/-bar is largely pointless for anything other than
> > filling up a disk with rubbish. There's too little useful information
> > with
> > NVRA to be useful for debugging, and rpm already has a more powerful
> > database with a query mechanism for storing the useful information, and
> > a more powerful verification mechanism to verify that the data is
> > indeed,
> > reliable.
> >
> >  A historical, erase-only log might be useful, but that's not what
> > your patch
> > is aiming to do.
> >
> > 73 de
> > Jeff______________________________________________________________________
> > RPM Package Manager                                    http://rpm5.org
> > Developer Communication List                        rpm-devel@rpm5.org
> >
>
>
>