I've been re-reading http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos-announce/2011-August/017689.html

I'm not clear as to when an update would go into the normal updates repository and when it'd go into the cr repository.

Please don't take this the wrong way; I'm not attacking; I'm just trying to understand how this works.

My best guess is that upstream is now 5.7 and bug fixes would be against 5.7, but since we're at 5.6 those fixes don't specifically apply, and so the cr is a temporary holding place for packages (and their dependencies) which would normally be in 5.7 but that need an earlier release (eg security). In this way cr is an attempt to provide timely security patches while the new release is still being prepared and validated.

Is that correct? Are cr packages still validated as strictly as every other package? Are there any potential negative consequences of using cr?

(Of course that posting - Aug 15th - hoped 5.7 would be out by 25th :-))

Thanks!