[users] Dropping the repotag

Dag Wieers dag at wieers.com
Mon Mar 19 12:58:30 UTC 2007


On Mon, 19 Mar 2007, Michael Schwendt wrote:

> On Mon, 19 Mar 2007 08:08:43 +0100 (CET), Dag Wieers wrote:
> 
> > > Why would a __user__ want a repotag? All the users want is that
> > > repositories "just work" when they are enabled and installed from, even if
> > > it is an unusual mix of repositories. A repotag does not contribute
> > > anything to achieving that. If the repotag is abused for RPM version
> > > comparison (as the least-significant part of %release), so packages from
> > > one repo upgrade packages from another repo, that would be really bad.
> > > Similarly bad is it when repositories compete with eachother in what they
> > > contain and when that leads to incompatibilities. A repotag only attempts
> > > at pushing some of the dirt under the carpet.
> > 
> > Hi Michael, welcome back, you haven't changed a bit.
> 
> Why should I?
> 
> Afterall, there's still the same hypocrisy in threads like this, no signs
> of actual cooperation or collaboration, but only attempts at influencing a
> project's decisions from the outside without getting involved.
> 
> The only difference in how I've changed is that I am not involved in EPEL,
> so feel free to agree on something without my blessing. ;)
> 
> > Yum doesn't where a package comes from and especially when the release-tag 
> > is identical (and this is not hypothetical) then you will have a hard time 
> > finding the cause.
> 
> Only because there are multiple sources, which try to provide the same
> thing or which go beyond that and offer competing packages, which upgrade
> and replace eachother.
> 
> > You say that a repotag does not contribute to things just working. Is that 
> > because you prefer people just use one repository ?
> 
> No. I prefer a strict hierarchy of repositories, a tree where child nodes
> don't mess with fathers' stuff.
> 
> > What then if CentOS 
> > does not join EPEL (which is likely) and has it's own extras repository ?
> 
> If they have the man-power to do that, fine.
> 
> If they find a team of maintainer for every package, fine.
> 
> If they rebuild EPEL packages with an added repo tag and forward bug
> reports to EPEL, fine.
> 
> But wait! That would make the repo tag enter RPM version comparison for
> users, who enable CentOS Extras *and* EPEL. Or they go a step farther and
> create an upgrade race with EPEL by bumping %release or %version.
> Repository mixing problems again. Irresponsible, IMO.

And again, the repotag does not influence the release comparison. There is 
nothing to compare in releases if you consider multiple repositories.

We get to the heart of the matter, which is (and has been):

	There is only one repository. I don't care about anything else.

This argument has created tools (like yum) that do not consider a 
multi-repository world. For Fedora that worked in the sense that you 
forced people to join (as it was upstream) or FUD them out of existence.

For RHEL this will not work, and as much as you want to force people into 
your community, and regardless of how well that works, it is not very 
nice.

So welcome back !

Kind regards,
--   dag wieers,  dag at wieers.com,  http://dag.wieers.com/   --
[all I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power]




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