rpmforge and {enterprise, } Extras (Was Re: Initial Proposal for doing Enterprise Extras=

[Karanbir Singh]

Talk of an RPMForge / Extras work-together-for-the-common-goal makes me 
happy. Some of the .spec's in Extras today found root in the rpmforge 
tree's and the guys there - dag, dries, thias etc have done a fair bit 
of work over the years, throwing community behind the same goal would be 
nice way to carry on these efforts.

I have some understanding about rpmforge and am in regular contact with 
the people behind it, and will try to answer these questions as best as 
I can. [1]

Thorsten Leemhuis wrote:
> Well, after my first more diplomatic shot I'm willing to touch more
> dangerous grounds now.
> 
> There are afaics (and *please* correct me if I'm wrong) some more big
> differences:
> 
> - rpmforge wants to (or does already?) build for distributions like Suse
> or SLES (someone indicated that to me in private on IRC some weeks ago)

I am not sure what the intended significance of this point is ? Does 
FExtras not want their spec's used elsewhere ? hey, why only SuSe, I'd 
love to see even MDK etc using the same spec - we only gain from a 
broader testing/ user  base.

but apart from that, afaik, rpmforge isnt building/ hosting any non 
Fedora/Redhat/Aurora builds.

> There were two more in the past, I don't know if they are still valid:
> 
> - rpmforge now and then replaced packages from the the distributions is
> was build for (RHEL, Fedora Core and Extras, which i consider as a
> integrated part for Fedora Core, but that's just my view);

I too, have some issues on this front - I dont think we should be 
replacing pkgs from [base], specially not on a supported platform like 
EL. However, once a distro is in Maint mode, should this then be allowed 
? Also, for still supported distros : could such packages be split into 
a seperate repo ( CentOSPlus sorts ? ) and then let users make the 
decision ?

> - rpmforge builds new packages often for several distributions including
> those that are in "Maintenance state" (FC3, FC4 currently); Fedora
> Extras is more conservative here

True, but this policy at Extras will need to change quite dramatically 
if and when Enterprise Extras comes into play, remember - 7 years from 
now, EL4 will still be a supported platform...

>> The current move to build for centos, EL etc means that this
>> fundemental difference should disappear. Of course, rpmforge provides
>> many useful packages which couldn't move into FE/EE - it wasn't my
>> intention to suggest a merger.
> 
> Well, why not? Merge the stuff into Extras that can be there; merge the
> other stuff with livna and atrpms and everybody is happy because "repo
> wars" would be mostly history then.

+1 for that, why even have a livna/atrpms/rpmforge building for the same 
stuff. Setup a shared svn, and let the builders do their thing. If there 
is potential for this, I am happy to be the one to co-ordinate with 
people. ( even if that includes screaming/ yelling / name calling etc - 
I've developed a rather hard skin over the last few years )

> Yeah, but what can Fedora Extras offer them? 

I think we all need to take a user specific view on some of these 
things. I know that FE can offer rpmforge a lot, and similarly rpmforge 
can offer stuff back.

thl, going back to your statement - perhaps we should not consider this 
as FE/RPMForge at all - but 
FE/other-repo's-that-build-with-the-same-target. Atleast on a longer 
term position.

>>> And there are also different goals
>>> in FE and rpmforge that will make a merge even more complicated -- I
  > It would be helpful if dag and dries could share their view on this idea
> here.

I dont speak for RPMForge, but perhaps we could start with a set of pkgs 
where the goal isnt divergent. And there isnt any Licensing issue...

- KB

[1] I had already been doing some work on getting the repo's at 
centos.karan.org ( FE rebuilds for CentOS ) and the El4/EL5 branch of 
RPMForge to merge, and then get the CentOS community to get involved in 
expanding the project there.

-- 
Karanbir Singh : http://www.karan.org/ : 2522219 at icq