repotag in EPEL (was: Re: Plan for tomorrows (20070426) FESCO meeting)

[Fernando Lopez-Lezcano]

On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 08:30 -0500, Tom "spot" Callaway wrote:
> On Mon, 2007-04-30 at 03:50 +0200, Axel Thimm wrote:
> 
> > I've tried (and even have code) to manipulate this outside of rpm and
> > it is quite messy. The problem is that you either cheat and don't use
> > the same specfile, or you start fiddling with the rpm headers
> > invalidtaing any signatures on the way.
> 
> So, yes. You cheat. You have the buildsystem tag the repotag onto the
> end of the Release field in its local copy before it builds.
> 
> But I'd like to point out that I'm still fundamentally opposed to the
> repotag, as I've yet to hear what problem it solves, aside from the
> "other repos want it" problem.

Problem they solve (as I see it): repotags[*] make it easy to spot where
packages come from using simple rpm queries (or any other existing
tools), which in turn makes it easier to help determine where problems
come from when they happen. AFAIK repotags have not caused technical
problems when used, they _have_ been useful, and they work now. 

Other major repos have asked for inclusion of repotags in EPEL, but that
is not the problem.

If EPEL does not include it in their packages it makes it more difficult
to find out easily where a package comes from. EPEL is entering an
existing ecosystem of repositories and it'd be nice to not make life
more difficult for them. 

-- Fernando

[*] repotag == short ascii string appended to the end of "Release:" that
uniquely ids the repository it comes from.