yum grabs the variable 'distroverpkg' from /etc/yum.conf. It then
looks in the RPM database for a package with that name. So on CentOS
it looks for a package called centos-release. Fedora, at least as of
version 4, seems to act a little differently, but it should work this
way for RH 7.2/7.3.

Consequently, the ***-release RPM package also installs the
/etc/***-release data.

You may want to grab the latest redhat-release package from
rpm.pbone.net or other source. I checked and it looks like there is
one out there.

Good luck!

-Eric

On 11/14/06, Josh Welch <josh at joshwelch.com> wrote:
> I'm not sure where Yum gets that, but there is an /etc/redhat-release
> that contains that information, perhaps it is getting it there?
>
> Quoting "Smith, Craig A (MN14)" <Craig.A.Smith at honeywell.com>:
>
> > I have a couple old systems that were upgraded from Red Hat 7.2 to 7.3.
> > The Fedora Legacy Project says they will discontinue support for Red Hat
> > Linux 7.3 and 9 effective December 31st of this year (2006).
> > http://fedoralegacy.org/
> >
> > I want to do one final update, but yum still thinks it's running 7.2.
> > Where does Yum get the $releasever variable?
> >
> > # cat /proc/version
> > Linux version 2.4.20-28.7 (bhcompile at porky.devel.redhat.com) (gcc
> > version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.3 2.96-126)) #1 Thu Dec 18
> > 11:31:59 EST 2003
> >
> > # yum update
> > Gathering package information from servers
> > Getting headers from: Red Hat Linux 7.2 base
> > Getting headers from: Fedora Legacy utilities for Red Hat Linux 7.2
> > Getting headers from: Red Hat Linux 7.2 updates
> > Finding updated packages
> > Downloading needed headers
> > No Packages Available for Update
> > No actions to take
> >
> > # cat /etc/yum.conf
> > [main]
> > cachedir=/var/cache/yum
> > debuglevel=2
> > logfile=/var/log/yum.log
> > pkgpolicy=newest
> > exactarch=1
> > exclude=kernel*
> >
> > [base]
> > name=Red Hat Linux $releasever base
> > baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/os/$basearch
> > gpgcheck=1
> >
> > [updates]
> > name=Red Hat Linux $releasever updates
> > baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/updates/$bas
> > earch
> > gpgcheck=1
> >
> > [legacy-utils]
> > name=Fedora Legacy utilities for Red Hat Linux $releasever
> > baseurl=http://download.fedoralegacy.org/redhat/$releasever/legacy-utils
> > /$basearch
> > gpgcheck=1
> >
> >
> > Thanks.
> >
> > == Craig A. Smith
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
> > tclug-list at mn-linux.org
> > http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list
> >
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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> tclug-list at mn-linux.org
> http://mailman.mn-linux.org/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list
>