Better way of packaging templates than RPM

[marmarek]

Follow up from #2061:

We need some better way of shipping templates... Or a consistent workflow how to handle RPM templates.

Problems with templates as RPM packages:

• can't be renamed #839
• poor RPM handling of large files #1326
• can be accidentally updated (overriding user changes / updates) #996 #1647
• but sometimes it is desirable to update/reinstall them #2061
• complete backup restore is tricky because of above #1385
• rpm-managed vs non-rpm-managed templates difference is confusing #1403

/cc @adrelanos

[tasket]

Templates are very compressible, so perhaps the rpms could be cached in a special folder and re/installed as needed. That would allow the user to delete any deployed template at will and could solve #1403 #1385 (most of) #2061 and probably the rest.

Another option could be to keep snapshots of the initial deployed templates, if the filesystem supports it. Actually.... Supporting per-vm snapshots would solve a lot of problems.

[tasket]

Templates are very compressible, so perhaps the rpms could be cached in a special folder and re/installed as needed. That would allow the user to delete any deployed template at will and could solve #1403 #1385 (most of) #2061 and probably the rest.

Another option could be to keep snapshots of the initial deployed templates, if the filesystem supports it. Actually.... Supporting per-vm snapshots would solve a lot of problems.

[marmarek]

Fedora-23 template RPM is about 1.2GB. While much smaller than installed template, still not nothing...

[marmarek]

Fedora-23 template RPM is about 1.2GB. While much smaller than installed template, still not nothing...