Fedora needs more evangelism for repositories

[Mike Fedyk]

Brad Smith wrote:
> Thanks for the thoughtful comments, though I think they would be
> better made as individual emails to the people that run these sites. I

True, but there are a lot of one man efforts that don't go anywhere, so 
I'd like to get some feedback from others in the fedora community on 
this topic.

> 1) I think there are times when downloading and installing a package
> is fine, even preferable to using a repository. One example is when
> there are no dependancies issues and there is no expectation that the
> user will be installing other packages from that repo often.

No.  Many times there are minor upgrades to a package to fix packaging 
errors.  This is the power of repositories, and shouldn't be overlooked.

Package upgrades, interaction with packager about packaging bugs (not 
app bugs, since that should be taken to the upstream developers).

> Adding
> repositories unnescessarily to your apt/yum config files just
> increases the the number of headers to be dealt with, taking up time
> and disk space. I think a document on the subject should keep this in
> mind.

The only drawback I can see is if repositories get mixed without 
priorities setup (only apt supports this AFAIK).

Here is my /etc/apt/preferences file:
Package: *
Pin: release a=Fedora Linux Freshrpms
Pin-Priority: 600

Package: *
Pin: release c=dag
Pin-Priority: 610

Package: *
Pin: release o=Livna.org
Pin-Priority: 1800

Package: *
Pin: release l=Fedora Extras, a=stable
Pin-Priority: 1850

If package abc is in "Fedora Extras" and any other repository, it will 
only use the "Fedora Extras" package.  This should keep repository 
mixing from happening for the most part.

Repository use, and especially repository prioritization (if you use 
more than Fedora Extras and Livana) needs to be emphasized.

> 2) I run fedoratracker.org, the goal of which is to make searching and
> using fedora apt/yum repositories more practical. If you want to draft
> a document like the one you describe and it turns out well then if no
> one from a more authoritative site offers to I can link it from my
> 'resources' page.

Thanks

Mike