[elrepo] Introducing a new repository "elrepo-extras"

[Akemi Yagi]

Hi all,

In addition to our main (elrepo), testing (elrepo-testing) and kernel
(elrepo-kernel) repositories, we plan to introduce another "extras"
repository (elrepo-extras) for packages that replace packages in the
RHEL distribution.

The reasoning for this is to keep the main elrepo channel safe in
terms of usage by not updating any distribution packages.

An example of this within the el5 channel would be some hardware
sensor kmod packages (e.g, coretemp, it87, k10temp) that Require an
updated lm_sensors package replacing the distribution lm_sensors
package. At present users are unable to routinely run 'yum update'
against the elrepo repository as doing so might, for example,
unnecessarily update the lm_sensors package -- not the intended
action. To this end we have up until now shipped with a default
disabled configuration.

We also have some el6 packages in the pipeline that require some
updated X11 components.

So a few changes are going to happen:

1. A new extras repository will be added (elrepo-extras). This will
contain any packages and their dependencies that replace/update RHEL
distribution packages.

2. A new elrepo-release package will be released. This will contain an
updated yum configuration file (elrepo.repo) for the new repository
channel.

3. The main elrepo repository will now be *enabled* by default. As
this channel should not contain packages also present in the
distribution, it should be safe to run a 'yum update' with this
repository channel enabled. One historical exception is the
module-init-tools package, which addressed an interim problem with
kmod updating that has been addressed in the distribution package.

4. Existing packages and their dependencies that replace/update RHEL
distribution packages will be moved to the new elrepo-extras
repository.

The elrepo-testing repository will continue to be used for testing of
all packages, regardless of their final destination and whether or not
they or their dependencies update distribution packages. Thus, as the
name suggests, the testing repository should continue to be used with
care.

Thank you,

The ELRepo Team.