Red Hat Knowledgebase

The best source of documentation on comps.xml is online at

http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/anaconda-installer/comps.html

It should be mentioned that you do not need to edit/add items into a comps.xml file for the anaconda installer to know about the package and install it. If you dump 3rd party (or custom) RPMs into the install tree being used, re-run hdlist on the directory, and then add the specific packages to the ks.cfg file within the %packages section.

Editing the comps.xml for a 3rd party or custom RPM could be more useful for either creation of custom ISO's or if you are removing Red Hat supplied packages which you do not want to be installed. Such reasons for not wanting an RPM installed via the comps.xml (within the %packages section) would be to resolve a conflict with a Red Hat package that is installed by default. For example, you may have a custom RPM package that will conflict with a package that Red Hat installs by default and you need the customized RPM package installed for your environment during installation.