a quick search didn't reveal anything meaningful, so i suspect it's a
very simple question, yet, i seemed to unable to resolve it.

Q: how to update a local repository ?
step-by-step:
0. createrepo v 0.9.8, SL6 with the latest and greatest patches.
Behaviour is consistent between 686 and x64.
1. create directory /mnt/localrepo as a regular user.
2. add 1 rpm ( say example.rpm) ( regular user)
3. create local repository with "create repo" command ( as root).
4. add local repository to the yum.repos and enable it
5.  yum search example
6. search reveals "example.rpm" in the local repo
7. copy big_program.rpm to the directory /mnt/localrepo ( regular user)
8. run " createrepo /mnt/localrepo" - i can observe that it goes thru
the packages, but doesn't pick up a new one.
8a. run " createrepo --update /mnt/localrepo" - does the same thing
9. yum search big_program.rpm - reveals nothing.

the only way i got this to work is by removing the repodata folder and
starting from scratch ( step 3 ). This is obviously not right.

Please advise.
Andrew