There is a perpetual problem facing all Linux distributions around
how fast
to move with software updates. In Fedora, of course, our default speed is
petal-to-the-metal. This is part of who we are and why we are awesome.
However, it also sometimes makes life difficult for us -- for example, our
Puppet packages are broken because Ruby is too new. It also makes life
difficult for people trying to use Fedora seriously. It's especially hard
with Ruby and Java -- not that there's anything _wrong_ with these
languages, but the packaging expectations are different and often in
conflict with the system operator's traditional packaging worldview.
So, some Red Hat folks have developed an idea called Software Collections
http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora_Contributor_Documentation/1/html/
Software_Collections_Guide/index.html which is aimed at this problem -- it
lets you install and choose between different versions of RPM-packaged
software in parallel at run-time.
The base tool for enabling this (scl-utils) is included in Fedora, but we
don't allow Software Collections actually as Fedora packages (see
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SoftwareCollections). This is for very good
reasons -- there are a number of huge unanswered questions around structure,
infrastructure, maintenance, and security updates.
I think, though, that this tool, integrated well and supported, could really
help us in Fedora (and in EPEL). So, I'd like to
a) enumerate the problems with Software Collections in Fedora,
b) develop a medium-term plan for solving those problems, and
c) develop a longer-term plan for taking full advantage of the functionality
where appropriate.
Hi,
I guess the main reason why SCL is not used in Fedora it requires a certain
(potentially non-trivial) amount of work from package maintainer.
However feel free to make your packages SCL enabled. You shouldn't have any
issues with that. Just make necessary modification in your spec files, build all
packages against the Fedora in which you want them and host them in your repo.
The only inconvenience here is that Fedora infrastructure isn't yet prepared
for simple support of private repositories in a style of Launchpad so you have
to do all this work manually.
If you have any questions, I'll be more than happy to answer them if I can.
--
Thank you
Jan Zeleny
Red Hat Software Engineer
Brno, Czech Republic