Hmm, what if a repo just added patches - you have to download repomd.xml at least to find out.
huh ? I am missing something ? Sure,a repo can "suddenly" start providing patches but why it has to download repomd.xml ? I see it this way at least for HTTP based repos for **patches** related stuff only. 1. if the repo has not changed do nothing, do not refresh nor reload the cache (after all the repo does not contain patches at all) 2. if the repo has changed, perform a a HEAD request to foobar/repodata/patches.xml if returns HTTP 200 refresh and go ahead. 3.repo can suddenly stop providing patches as well, so a similar operation is needed for that case as well. -- Cristian Rodríguez R. SUSE R&D "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them." --Ray Bradbury