PyRPM is a trial software project that explores rpm package management in detail.
PyRPM is a python module and a collection of scripts that provide similar functionality as rpm, yum and co. It is an experimental project to look at rpm package management. This project mainly deals with rpm packages, the rpm database rpmdb in /var/lib/rpm, comps.xml files and yum repositories (called repo data).
The purpose of this project is to have a codebase with which we can test and verify rpm, rpmdb and yum itself, experiment with new features and implementations very quickly, and contribute back to improve the current available Linux tools. Python is the defacto standard at Red Hat, making it only logical for us to use python to do rapid prototyping.
The code itself is still very small and modular. We're constantly looking to improve the code, make it more production ready, and remove duplicate functionality. Most code is backed up with verify and testing scripts. The results from this project back to rpm and co are essential for us to improve the current available Linux tools and not rush with only adding another project for this.
However, the PyRPM project is by no means meant to be a full replacement of rpm or yum. In its current state, we feel confident that in general it won't break anything, but the code isn't production quality yet. The check scripts can be safely used as they won't modify anything on your system, so feel free to use them at your convenience.
We personally have been using the yum replacement very extensively and even used it to update our own systems, but that's not even remotely a guarantee that it will work on your machine. It has only been run by a few people until now. Using it to set up buildroots on the other hand should be very safe as this all happens in a very contained environment (sandbox principle).
If you encounter any problems, please let us know, and if possible, provide some reproducible test cases so we can figure out what might have happened.
The purpose of this project is to have a codebase with which we can test and verify rpm, rpmdb and yum itself, experiment with new features and implementations very quickly, and contribute back to improve the current available Linux tools. Python is the defacto standard at Red Hat, making it only logical for us to use python to do rapid prototyping.
The code itself is still very small and modular. We're constantly looking to improve the code, make it more production ready, and remove duplicate functionality. Most code is backed up with verify and testing scripts. The results from this project back to rpm and co are essential for us to improve the current available Linux tools and not rush with only adding another project for this.
However, the PyRPM project is by no means meant to be a full replacement of rpm or yum. In its current state, we feel confident that in general it won't break anything, but the code isn't production quality yet. The check scripts can be safely used as they won't modify anything on your system, so feel free to use them at your convenience.
We personally have been using the yum replacement very extensively and even used it to update our own systems, but that's not even remotely a guarantee that it will work on your machine. It has only been run by a few people until now. Using it to set up buildroots on the other hand should be very safe as this all happens in a very contained environment (sandbox principle).
If you encounter any problems, please let us know, and if possible, provide some reproducible test cases so we can figure out what might have happened.
What's New
Version 0.70: N/A