The Mandriva RPM repositories have yum, which is what Yellow Dog Linux, Fedora, CentOS, etc. use instead of urpmi.

Is anybody using it with Mandriva?

I have used it on Fedora and I like it better than urpmi, so I would like to use it on Mandriva too. But it doesn't do anything, probably because /etc/yum/repos.d/ is empty and the default /etc/yum/yum.conf has no repos listed.

Do Mandriva's urpmi repos have the necessary meta information to make yum work? What does a typical repo entry look like in /etc/yum/yum.conf?

Mandriva uses urpmi.
You can use yum if you set up a yum repo someplace...

OK, Simon, you've kind of restated what I said in my question. Have you actually used yum with Mandriva?

Do you know how to setup the yum repo?
Do you know the format of the file?
Do you know if the regular Mandriva repos have the necessary information to make yum work?
Or are there a few special Mandriva repositories for yum?
Or is yum only provided to allow access to Fedora repositories?
Or is yum an afterthought that Mandriva added but can't be used?

Yes and no - Mandriva does not use yum natively. Some sysadmins may want to set up internal yum repos to administer all linux computers (Duke U had a yum repo for Mandrake 9-something for eg). Thus, yum is available.Yes - there are also many online tutorials on how to do this - as well as many yum repos online for you to examine. Go look.I'm afraid that this comes under "RTFM". However - you seem to want yum for routine updates and maintenance. For this you'd have to urpmi the files to the repo anyway - just so you could yum them. My advice is - don't bother.

Increasingly - archive manager is a major factor in picking a distro.

Yes ... they don't.Yes - not usually for core apps though - usually they are specialized to a business or other workplace. Like Duke U.I would not bet on fedora rpms being much use with mandriva. You'd be entering dependancy hell since the metadata will not match or be completely absent.The yum client is available because some people want to distribute their projects via yum and not urpmi. Usually, it means that they already have things set up for yum and don't want to support multiple repo styles.

Hey Guru Simon Bridge, maybe forums aren't really for you.

RTFM? That's not an appropriate answer. I didn't ask how to copy a file. You yourself agreed that using yum on Mandriva is non-standard, and that is the non-trivial system administration function I asked about. Yes, I could launch my own investigation, but this forum is here so people can ask if anyone else has already figured it out.

You've answered my question, but I kind-of don't trust you because of your attitude. So I would be very interested to see if anyone else has any input.

check that with moderator...

What is reasonable expect in replies. with particular reference to the response RTFM.

However - had I not thought that you were capable of reading the instructions, you'd have got more of a hand-holding response.

The information you wanted is in the manual and online - seriously easy to get at. You did not bother to look, or you'd have found this.

But that wasn't what you wanted to do. (Or was it?)
So - the appropriate reply to your stated question (how do I set up a yum repo) was rtfm (or giyf - but you got the ironic version - sadly, irony does not always convert well to text) - the considered reply to your unstated question (how do I maintain Mandriva with yum) occupied the rest of the post.

Now, if you do ant to know about setting up a yum repo, read the howto, read the manual, then your question will have more focus.

WRONG!

I did not ask how to set up a repo. I asked the format of the 1 to 3 lines of text (I would guess) in the conf file that would enable yum to read and use Mandriva's urpmi repositories. My original question asked it this way: Do Mandriva's urpmi repos have the necessary meta information to make yum work?

You are claiming the answer is that it can't be done, and I feared that was the answer before I posted. The reason I feared that is because I already found information on configuring yum and tried several variations with Mandriva repos with no success.


It shouldn't be such a mystery why I might think Mandriva would have modified yum to work with their own repositories. Consider these two points:

One, PCLinuxOS (or maybe it was Connectiva) modified the apt tool to use RPMs instead of DEBs. Modifying yum to use Mandriva's existing repos would seem to be a very similar thing to do--maybe easier since yum already works with RPMs.

Two, Mandriva offers yum as an available application, which begs the question, why offer it if it's not useful? You suggested it's for use with private yum repositories. That seems like an unlikely answer, though hope is dwindling that it can be used as I want, and I can't think of a better one.

I still would like to know if anyone in the whole wide world has ever used Mandriva's version of yum.

Hi, I think Simon has answered your question in post #2,

Most ppl don't have the resources of a university, where many academics may contribute.

I understand that having a wide based intranet, with many OS's

a yum repo for Mandriva may have been economical (5 years ago).

But as mentioned many ppl find a package manager they get used to,

or find easy to manipulate and adopt a distribution that uses it.

As for the meta data, Mandriva, as you may know, has a completely different way of naming

packages, and the dependencies of each package in comparison to red hat or fedora.

The dependents very likely will not match.

LQ has a fantastic search function, and I think you have some work ahead of you to

implement a function like yum with Mandriva.

Maybe some one will respond.

btw, RTFM=read the friendly manual. Not the "other", popular in Australia with m$windows users.

Cheers and regards, Glenn

I didn't say anything about that. (Edit: OK, I did ask it rhetorically, but it wasn't the thrust of my question.) My only interest is in using yum with existing Mandriva repos.

Both of you are saying the capability is not provided, though it's frustrating that both of you seem distracted by side topics.

So to put the answer in simplest possible form, yum does not understand the Mandriva repo format and will not work corectly with it. If you want to use yum as your package manager, you will have to either select a distribution that uses yum natively or set up your own mandriva repo for use with yum (in which case you will have to read the yum documentation to learn how). Yup, I bet I too answered your question in a manner you most probably did not want, but no amount of nit-picking will change the fact that the Mandriva repositories are incompatible with yum. Sorry, but the Mandriva repositories and yum are like Apples and Oranges or Oil and Water. An Apple will never be an Orange (even though both are fruit) and Oil will never mix well with water (even though both are liquids). The short version of all this is - you can not configure yum to use a Mandriva repository because the repository format is wrong.

Ernie, you obviously are not a software developer.

Also, your answer does not add anything constructive.

AhemYou actually asked if I know the format of "the file" - and mentioned urpmi repos vis a vis yum after that. Please excuse me - I read your second question in the context of the first.

[edit]
Note: rhetorical questions do not come across well in text.

KenJackson, You are correct I am not a software developer. I am a Linux user who knows how to listen to the advise of those who know more than I. I have now come to the conclusion that it is not help you want, but attention. I am through. Good by.

Ernie, the reason it was obvious you are not a developer is because no developer would ever see a lack of software compatibility as a permanent thing. The only question is whether there is enough motivation to make it compatible, or in this case whether someone already had.

Simon, this is becoming the most boring thread on LQ. My mention of setting up repos was clearly rhetorical to draw out an answer to what I was really after. (The purpose of the post was not to come across well in a debate, but to get an answer.) No one has spoken up with information countering you, so I assume you are right. It's a shame Mandriva lacks the flexibility to use yum.

I wonder why you insist in using yum. Nobody uses yum in Mandriva. Nobody tested it, nobody can tell if it works or not. Almost everybody uses urpmi and a very small minority uses smart. So, I advise you to use urpmi. If you want a painless experience with Mandriva forget yum.