On Mon, Dec 2, 2013 at 8:19 AM, Kevin Fenzi <kevin@scrye.com> wrote:
On Mon, 2 Dec 2013 09:45:44 +0400
Peter Lemenkov <lemenkov@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello All!
>
> 2013/12/2 Dave Johansen <davejohansen@gmail.com>:
> > I recently submitted ODB 2.2 to the EPEL for EL 5/6 and version 2.3
> > has been released (
> > http://codesynthesis.com/pipermail/odb-announcements/2013/000037.html
> > ). The wiki seems to indicate that updating software for feature
> > releases is discouraged (
> > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL_Updates_Policy#Stable_Releases
> > ), so is updating ODB to 2.3 in the EPEL not really possible?
> > Assuming that's the case, is there a recommended solution for
> > maintaining access to newer versions of ODB for EL users?
>
> ODB is still a "young" package (in terms of existing in EL
> repositories) so I would update it anyway. However in the future ypu'd
> better to provide parallel-installable odb30, odb40 etc packages.

The questions to ask are:

Does the upgrade require intervention? ie, if someone did the upgrade
would they have to manually change config files, or migrate databases
or whatever?

No, the 2.3 version just adds some features and there wouldn't be any needed changes to config files or databases to support the update.
 
Next, is the package a gui one that changes look and feel? ie, would
some user who updated suddenly have to relearn where the various
options are?

There's no GUI or user facing part of it, so it would be effect developers but not users.
 
Finally, does it change abi/api any? If it was updated would people
have to rebuild other things to work with it?

There were additions to the API to support the new features and I'm guessing that there may be ABI changes as well. Basically, I'm guessing that a rebuild would be necessary.