HI!

I have some read only shared minidisks
/
/usr
/opt

The rmp lib (/var/lib/rpm) is in /opts/var/lib/rpm on shared minidisk.
Each Linux image has either an sym. link /var/lib/rpm -> /opts/var/lib/rpm
or bind mounted file system
mount --bind /opts/var/lib/rpm /var/lib/rpm

There are read write file systems for each Linux image too:

/tmp
/var
/home
/etc
/dev

I have two sets of read only shared minidisk. (active and inactive)

I install and update all the RPMs on so called master Linux, where inactive shared 
minidisks are read write.
After I installed the RPMs I reipl all the Linux images and switch to use the new 
shared minidisk.
(the inactive set becomes active one)
If the update was OK. I copy the new shared minidisk (active) over the old (inactive).
Now I can update again etc.

This works fine, if the RPM packege contains only files and directories such
/usr
/usr/lib
/lib
/bin
/sbin
etc.

If a package contains /etc or /var dirs you have to copy it to each Linux image.
If a package has some scripts
rpm -q --scripts RPMname
you have to run the scripts on each Linux image.
I am working hard to automate this process.

Because RPM lib is shared, all the Linux images see and have installed the current 
rpms.
rpm -qa --last

Most RPMs contains /usr /lib etc. only.
If you update a RPM because of a security fix, you only want update the software 
itself (/usr).
You don't want to change any configs in /etc nor anything in /var.
For that reason I am lucky using this method for a long time.

Best regards

Jan As
--
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