Bug 1569862

Summary: enabled_metadata parameter missing in dnf.conf man page
Product: [Fedora] Fedora Reporter: Marc Muehlfeld <mmuehlfe>
Component: dnfAssignee: rpm-software-management
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
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Priority: unspecified    
Version: 28CC: dmach, jmracek, mhatina, packaging-team-maint, plawate, rpm-software-management, vmukhame
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Last Closed: 2018-09-25 13:56:27 UTC Type: Bug
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Description Marc Muehlfeld 2018-04-20 07:22:07 UTC
Description of problem:
The /etc/yum.repos.d/fedora-cisco-openh264.repo file contains the following entry in the [fedora-cisco-openh264] section:
enabled_metadata=1
This parameter is not described in the dnf.conf man page.



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
dnf-2.7.5-9.fc28.noarch



How reproducible:
Always



Steps to Reproduce:
1. $ man dnf.conf
2. Search for "enabled_metadata"



Actual results:
Parameter is not described in the man page.



Expected results:
Parameter should be described in the man page.

Comment 1 Jaroslav Mracek 2018-09-25 13:56:27 UTC
Well this is a good point. The option enabled_metadata can be in .repo file, it parsed but used in dnf anywhere, because the behavior that can be triggered by the option is incompatible with dnf philosophy. Hope that you will understand.

Comment 2 Marc Muehlfeld 2023-05-17 06:59:44 UTC
I had to search online to find out more, and other users might have the same problem.
Fedora uses this parameter in a repo that we ship in the default installation but it's not documented.

That's why I consider this as a *UX (user expierence) bug* and, in my opinion, this ticket should be re-opened and fixed.

Instead of having a mysterious parameter in the configs and provide no option for the user to find out what it does, we should do one of the following:

1) Do not use this parameter in any repo.
2) Document the parameter in the man page. The description can mention that dnf does not use this parameter, but other tools can use it to optionally retrieve the metadata from the repository to provide a list of its contents to the user.

Comment 3 Pranav Lawate 2023-05-19 09:28:08 UTC
Hello Marc,

You stole my words. I wanted to suggest exactly these alternatives.
The only source of information is :
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Third_Party_Repository_Policy

I will also be working on making a KCS for RH customers to have clearer understanding until map page is created.
I hope to have a BZ open under RHEL product to have this propagated into RHEL as well.

Regards,
Pranav