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Bug 744335 - yum-cron has no documentation
Summary: yum-cron has no documentation
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: yum
Version: 6.4
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
low
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: James Antill
QA Contact: Patrik Kis
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks: 858023
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2011-10-07 21:46 UTC by Mike Lococo
Modified: 2014-01-21 06:24 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version: yum-3.2.29-31.el6
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
: 858023 (view as bug list)
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-02-21 10:12:24 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHBA-2013:0406 0 normal SHIPPED_LIVE yum bug fix and enhancement update 2013-02-20 20:50:44 UTC

Description Mike Lococo 2011-10-07 21:46:41 UTC
Description of problem:
yum-cron has no documentation

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
3.2.29-17.el6

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. rpm -ql yum-cron
2. Look for something in /usr/share/doc
3. Look for a man page
  
Actual results:
Only a COPYING file in /usr/share/doc, no man-page at all.

Expected results:
Some kind of minimal documentation explaining what the configurables are and how to use them.

Additional info:
Documentation is especially important because the configuration used by yum-cron is obtuse, relying on rarely used patterns and poorly documented features in other packages.  Examples of this behavior include:

1) The use of an init.d script to pseudo-enable/disable a cron job.  This is an unusual design-pattern, I'm not aware of any other cron-scripts that are managed this way and a sysconfig option would be a much saner way to provide the feature.  If the pseudo-service model is going to be employed it should be documented thoroughly.

2) The yum-cron service defaults to off for all runlevels, so the package doesn't perform it's function unless you perform the undocumented step of enabling the pseudo-service (that as mentioned above isn't required for any other cron job).

3) The use of the yum shell feature.  Few admins are familiar with the yum-shell feature, and it's not documented all that well elsewhere.  For example, the "ts" command used in yum-cron's yum shell files isn't documented in either the yum manpage or in the yum-shell manpage.  You have to run "yum shell" and then type help from the shell itself to see any mention of the "ts" shorthand.

4) The /etc/sysconfig file is full of double-negatives like "CHECK_ONLY" and "DOWNLOAD_ONLY".  These kinds of poorly names variables need verbose explanations like "CHECK_ONLY=yes causes yum-cron to check for the availability of updates without downloading or installing them.  Defaults to no, meaning that updates will be downloaded and installed."  In many ways, it might be better just to fix the varnames to be CHECK_FIRST, CHECK, DOWNLOAD, and INSTALL, all of which default to yes in order to install updates.  If you only want to download, you turn off INSTALL.  If you only want to check, you turn off DOWNLOAD.  But barring sane varnames, the comments should be verbose and explicit about what "yes" means and what "no" means.

Many of these shortcomings were observed as early as 2005: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-73354.html

Comment 2 RHEL Program Management 2012-05-03 04:40:43 UTC
Since RHEL 6.3 External Beta has begun, and this bug remains
unresolved, it has been rejected as it is not proposed as
exception or blocker.

Red Hat invites you to ask your support representative to
propose this request, if appropriate and relevant, in the
next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Comment 4 RHEL Program Management 2012-07-10 06:02:32 UTC
This request was not resolved in time for the current release.
Red Hat invites you to ask your support representative to
propose this request, if still desired, for consideration in
the next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2012-07-11 02:11:07 UTC
This request was erroneously removed from consideration in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4, which is currently under development.  This request will be evaluated for inclusion in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.4.

Comment 12 errata-xmlrpc 2013-02-21 10:12:24 UTC
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory, and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2013-0406.html


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