Comment 25 for bug 651482

New timings for only 'yum update', without actually installing anything:

5.1 -> 5.2: ()
real 5m45.746s
user 1m12.660s
sys 0m7.612s

NOTE:
yum tracebacks with (I guess it can't wait so long to read the 'n' character)

Install 33 Package(s)
Update 742 Package(s)
Remove 4 Package(s)

Total download size: 1.4 G
Is this ok [y/N]: Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/yum", line 29, in ?
    yummain.main(sys.argv[1:])
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/yummain.py", line 180, in main
    base.doTransaction()
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/cli.py", line 390, in doTransaction
    if not self.userconfirm():
  File "/usr/share/yum-cli/output.py", line 123, in userconfirm
    choice = raw_input('Is this ok [y/N]: ')
EOFError: EOF when reading a line

5.1 -> 5.2 (yum updated):
real 2m10.889s
user 0m22.272s
sys 0m1.772s

We're 2/3 times faster with the new yum version but what is really slow is the package download/install/remove process. It's sequential if I'm not wrong.

Bug 71184 has some nice ideas how to speed up things. It's been open for years and the reporter has been active providing information but the bug was CLOSED/WONTFIX.

One thing to start with is parallel downloads of packages to utilize bandwidth. One thread will download the largest packages while another will start downloading the smallest ones (making more connections) and they meet in the middle.

James,
please let me know how you feel about the ideas in bug 71184 and I can start filing them as separate items which can go either to RHEL or Fedora.

Thanks,
Alexander