On 05/18/2012 04:32 PM, Dennis Jacobfeuerborn wrote:

Hi, I just learned that there exists a "z-stream" channel upstream that apparently carries some important bugfixes. Does anyone know what the policies are for this channel and how this relates to centos releases?

Regards, Dennis

The Z-Stream channels contain nothing important ... in fact they are not even released publicly.

Z-Stream is security updates that you can apply to that stream and stay on an older point release. So, they would be the samba updates for the 5.6.z channel and be able to stay on 5.6 instead of moving to 5.7/5.8.

However, like I said before, it is moot point because Red hat does not release the Z-Stream Source code publicly ... just like they do not release the EUS code publicly.

If you want those kinds of services, you will need to get them from Red Hat on as a paid service.

BUT, and I want to make sure everyone understands this, the Z-Stream items are not things that you do not get in the main (regular) tree ... they are just some security updates that are already rolled into the main tree that are also back ported an older, paid for, stabilized tree.

Here is a link to read about the Z-Stream offerings:

https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/#vii

Again, these z-streams are not allowed to be rebuilt and not offered to the public, but they are also not anything that is required to be up to date security wise. They are just a "slower moving" subscription service offered as an add on service with additional cost to RHEL customers by Red Hat. If you need what this service offers (a slower update cycle for a specific point release version) that still has updates backported, then it might be worth the RHEL subscription and the added zstream subscription ... but since it is not released publicly, it is not a service CentOS can offer.