[Planetlab-devel] problem with layering bootstrapfs images one on top of another

[Marc E. Fiuczynski]

Hi,

The way bootstrapfs and the layered addons was intended as an 
optimization.  I'm open to a redesign.  If I were to do so right now, I 
would:

- use a single base bootstrapfs for the root context on a per $pldistro 
basis

- customize this base bootstrapfs using the (now native) nodegroup 
functionality
  which would turn the node into one that had the nodegroup defined 
characteristics.
  For example, this might involve doing various fine grain file updates 
in addition to
  a "yum groupupdate $nodegroup".

One reason we shied away of relying on yum in the past is because an 
older (and likely even a recent) version of yum may not work reliably.  
E.g., we've run into issues with yum bombing out if the http connection 
it was using went via some http proxy. Any way, maybe we can give this 
another shot.

Marc