  In a regression setup with deterministic design, we study the pure
aggregation problem and introduce a natural extension from the Gaussian
distribution to distributions in the exponential family. While this extension
bears strong connections with generalized linear models, it does not require
identifiability of the parameter or even that the model on the systematic
component is true. It is shown that this problem can be solved by constrained
and/or penalized likelihood maximization and we derive sharp oracle
inequalities that hold both in expectation and with high probability. Finally
all the bounds are proved to be optimal in a minimax sense.
