On Wed, 4 Jan 2017, Locane wrote:
Still though - someone manages the default repositories - so my question is, who decides when a package gets an update from whatever CentOS ships with default to a newer version? How does that process take place, and, can I affect it by adding microcode_ctl-2.1-18 ?
For the vast majority of CentOS packages, that decision is made by Red Hat, whose Enterprise Linux product is rebuilt pretty much as-is and released as CentOS. As goes RHEL, so goes CentOS.
That's considered a feature by CentOS users, not a bug.
So when Red Hat releases a new microcode_ctl package, a CentOS update will follow quickly.
The obverse is true too: without a RHEL release, a CentOS update will not follow.
You can manually download and install Petr Oros' test package, and you can badger Red Hat, but those are your only realistic options.