Allow multiple package definitions in an instance data document?

[rgwilton]

Should the schema for packages in an instance-data document hold just a single package, or multiple packages?

There are potentially several advantages to a single file holding multiple package definitions:

• This may allow the schema for the instance data package definition and the YANG library definition to be more closely aligned.
• This may be better for vendor devices that support different schema for different datastores.

But there are some downsides too:

• The instance data file cannot have a well defined name that identifies the package that it contains. Although that could still be done with slight different names (e.g. pkg vs pkgs).

[rgwilton]

DT opinion is that this is a good idea.

[rgwilton]

This potential has issues with checksum fields which assume each package definition is in a separate file. Possibly, thinking that it is a mistake to allow multiple packages in the same instance data file.

[rgwilton]

This is not allowed because it means that package checksums (which reference an instance data document don't work).