Current - a server for Red Hat's up2date
Current is an open source implementation of a server to interact with the Up2date Agent shipped in Red Hat Linux. Everything is implemented for a basic, anonymous only system. We are working to extend support for non-anonymous (fully managed) setups.
If you have an existing Current setup, you MUST read the RELEASE_NOTES file from version to version to see whats changed (config, setup, need to rebuild database, whatever). If you are interested in the low-level details, please read the CHANGELOG. The docs directory contains the longer documentation for new sites or reference. The TODO file and the roadmap.txt file will tell you where we are going.
Basically, the functionality of 1.0 is enough to get a small network (20-30 clients) updated with basic security patches. 1.4 is scalable enough to take this basic, anonymous only functionality to hundreds of hosts (500 or so seems to be a good point).
There is a freshmeat entry and a website, mailing lists, cvs repository, etc at http://current.tigris.org. If you will be using current in a production enviroment, we recommend you join at least the users mailing list, but you should definately join the annouce list.
Comments to the mailing list please. Bug reports should contain enough detail to help us see what the problem is. Patches always cheerfully looked at.
NOTE: !WARNING! ACHTUNG- This server should be carefully tested and monitored before being trusted with production clients (workstations OR servers). The safety and security of your network and hosts is YOUR responsibility - we do our best to put out a high-quality server, but its up to you to decide how your network will be managed.
- Status
server itself:
Please note that Current is only tested and claimed to work on
RHL 7.2, 7.3, 8.0 and 9. It is reported to work on the 2.1
enterprise releases. Your server should run all original Red
Hat packages (and should itself be fully up to date with errata).
The single exception is that on a RHL 8.0 server, you need a newer
mod_python (3.0.1 at least) to deal with bugs in that package. A
suitable mod_python package and src package are provided on the
web site.
- rhn register
- Current can handle rhn_register versions of 1.3.x through at least 2.8.28. For rhn_register this means generating a usable system id and not crashing the client. (IE, all the API functions are at least stubbed out)
Both the GUI and text interfaces are supported.
Note that rhn_register disappears in the limbo betas and 8.0,
consumed by the up2date package itself.
up2date:
Current can handle up2date versions from 2.7.x up to 3.1.x for all
simple cases (it works here). Versions prior to 2.7 will not be
supported.
Both the GUI and text interfaces are supported. (the gui has
one extra call it can make, which is implemented in a limited way).
Due to bugs in up2date itself, I HIGHLY recommend 2.7.63 or higher
if you are using clients in the 2.7 range. 2.7.83 has proved stable
for just about everyone - if you're sticking with 2.7.x for the time
being, run 2.7.83. (There are two serious bugs in earlier versions,
and neither can be fixed by the server).
rhn_check / rhnsd:
Not working. (rhnsd just calls rhn_check). The calls are stubbed
out in current v1.4.4, and should not produce an error.
rhn-applet:
Not working yet.
- Maintainers
- Hunter Matthews <thm@duke.edu> John Berninger <jwbernin@berningeronline.net> dev@current.tigris.org users@current.tigris.org
- Contributors
- Ivan Martinez Bug fixes Scott Schmit Bug fixes Toby D. Reeves SQL work Barry K. Nathan Debugging help Sam Bingner Debugging help