[CentOS-devel] enhancing /etc/*-release

Mon Feb 23 11:29:37 UTC 2015
Remi Collet <Fedora at FamilleCollet.com>

Le 23/02/2015 00:19, Karanbir Singh a écrit :
> hi,
> 
> We have spent a lot of time working out how best to work the
> /etc/centos-release file in order to satisfy most use cases. We've had a
> lot of positive feedback on the three digit release numbering that went
> into the first CentOS-7 release. And in the coming months, as the
> rolling builds onramp we will start seeing movement around those. This
> will also help address some points learned from the community
> during the 7.0.1406 cycle.
> 
> We have also decided to split the /etc/redhat-release link to
> /etc/centos-release and use that as a way to better indicate what
> codebase the running CentOS Linux instance was derived from.

I'm aware of some inventory software (OCSinventory, FusionInventory)
which rely on redhat-release to be a regular file (not a link) to detect
real "RHEL" [1], and check some other files (centos-release, ...) for
the clones.

Of course information from "lsb_release" is usually more accurate.

I have forward your mail to upstream dev of those projects.


Remi.

[1]
http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ocsinventory-dev/ocsinventory-unix-agent/trunk/view/head:/lib/Ocsinventory/Agent/Backend/OS/Linux/Distro/NonLSB/Redhat.pm

> Examples of what these files will look like in say March 2015 ( if .1 is
> released upstream by then ):
> 
> -------------------
> /etc/centos-release:
> CentOS Linux release 7.1.1503 (Core)
> 
> /etc/redhat-release
> Derived from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 (Source)
> 
> -------------------
> 
> The /etc/os-release file remains unchaged to indicate CentOS-7 as being
> the distro being consumed. We will however, be adding ABRT specific
> content to the os-release file once we have bugs.centos.org setup to
> accept abrt requests - and we have the required patched rolled out into
> the distro. These additions will have no impact on numbering reported
> via tools that consume /etc/os-release.
> 
> The /etc/centos-release file will then evolve with every monthly
> release, with the updated file being pushed into updates repo. This
> implies if someone was to install from the March rolling build, their
> /etc/centos-release will already have 7.1.1503 and anyone having a
> previously installed machine, doing a yum update would see the same file
> drop in.
> 
> The net result is an impact for new people installing from rolling build
> media ( and instance media like live images, cloud images, containers
> etc ). One installed or running, there is no change to how CentOS Linux
> has been in the past. You just get regular updates, and any machine,
> regardless of how it was installed and when, updated to the same point
> in time will have identical content.
> 
> 
> 
> --
> Karanbir Singh, Project Lead, The CentOS Project
> +44-207-0999389 | http://www.centos.org/ | twitter.com/CentOS
> GnuPG Key : http://www.karan.org/publickey.asc
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