how do I integrate patches and get updated rpms to users

[Warren Togami]

Mike Christie wrote:
> Hi, sorry of this is the wrong list. Maybe it should go to the maintiner 
> list but I am not yet on that.
> 
> I packaged the iscsi-initiator-utils rpm and have some fixes I need to 
> integrate. I think I know how to update cvs and the spec file and that 
> stuff from this doc
> http://fedora.redhat.com/docs/developers-guide/

This guide is very old and does not reflect how the Fedora Project 
works.  It sounds like you are confused by this document.

> 
> But how does the update get propagated to the user so when they do a yum 
>  command they get the newest version? Do I have to send mail to someone 
> or another list or does someone watch the cvs commits or is there some 
> magic in the build system?

iscsi-initiator-utils is neither in Core nor Extras currently.  You 
probably want to get it into Fedora Extras first for FC5 support.

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Extras
Here is all information related to the Fedora Extras project.  You need 
to submit your package to the package review process then request an 
account for cvsextras access.

> 
> And one other question about updating packages. Should I assume someone 
> will be running the current kernel? If a new kernel is released and it 
> lets say a sysfs file is removed or has some new behavior or the netlink 
> interface has changed, should I build in the userspace application (in 
> this case iscsid and iscsiadm) the ability to support all Fedora kernels 
> or just the current one?
> 

You should try your best to maintain compatibility within a Fedora 
release, but that is not always possible because Fedora releases 
typically follow the latest upstream kernel version.  When things break 
in that fashion, then you should follow the latest upstream kernel 
interfaces.  Only *attempt* to provide backwards compatibility if it 
wont make the software too ugly and full of cruft that will remain there 
forever, poorly tested and unused.

Warren Togami
wtogami at redhat.com