[El] Some thoughts on cooperation [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Mathieu Baudier mbaudier at argeo.org
Fri Nov 19 04:12:25 EST 2010


>> *   ELGIS could be considered the 'stable' version of the repository;
>>and
> At the beginning of the ELGIS project it was decided that packages are updated with every minor RHEL/CentOS release (5.1, 5.2 ...)
> The stable release, which won't change much over the whole major release is in EPEL.

Indeed, using Debian terminology and with regard to GIS software, I would say:
- Fedora: testing
- EPEL: stable
- ELGIS: backports (of FLOSS GIS software)

>> *   This could cause an issue for organisations getting access to later
>>stable versions of software which support say newer versions of OGC
>>Services.

The idea is to try to find a balance between stability and having the
latest GIS software available on the EL platform.
Hence following Red Hat minor releases (e.g. 5.5, 5.6...), where they
allow themselves to upgrade some non core software or provide a
parallel package (e.g. postgresql and postgresql84 introduce with 5.5)

>> *   Is there a concept with RHEL Packaging similar to Debian's Backports
>>where newer versions of software are backported to work with the Stable
>>release of Debian?

As I put above, I actually see the ELGIS repo as a backports
repository for GIS software.
That's why I think that most of the effort will/should take place in
EPEL for EL 6, and we would "take over" later on, when EPEL would be
"too stable".

To answer your question more generally, there is not backport repo
that I know of for RHEL/CentOS as a whole.
The closest to that would be the RPMForge repo, where they allow
themselves to upgrade base (and the CentOS Plus repo for some stuff
like kernels as well).
However there are often compatibility issues between EPEL and
RPMForge, and ELGIS does not support RPMForge as such (but I
personally mix EPEL and RPMForge, adding RPMForge on a package per
package basis).

Finally, we should also not lose sight that maintaining a repo is just
one of the goals of this effort, as proposed to the OSGeo foundation
last spring.
We also try to centralize and gather information about FLOSS GIS
software in general on the EL platform.
I would be really happy if we could reach a point where people using
FLOSS GIS only from the EPEL repo and not from the ELGIS repo would be
asking questions on this list and could expect to get support from the
community.


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