[CentOS-devel] [Proposal] Converge EPEL and CBS

[Haïkel]

Hi,

Since the CentOS acquihire, there was a lot of discussion about EPEL's future.
Since the FOSDEM meetup between Fedora/CentOS folks, there was little
progress on that topic

After a discussion with a Smooge, I decided to come with a proposal,
knowing that
1. Fedora wants to keep EPEL within it umbrella
2. That CentOS SIGs are in practice rebuilding a lot of EPEL packages
(or retag them for other SIGs)
leading to poor maintenance as they don't follow EPEL tickets for all
their dependencies.
3. EPEL is not part CentOS plans, and as soon as SIGs will progress,
*may* turn the former irrelevant
4. Some EPEL packages are poorly maintained especially on older EL
releases and/or orphaned


We've reached the point where both EPEL/CBS would greatly benefit to join hands.

So I suggest that we consider the following:
* EPEL will still use Fedora dist-git
* EPEL builds should be done in CBS to make it easier for SIGs to consume it.
* EPEL will use CentOS repositories instead of mirroring RHEL repositories
* Bridging Fedora/CentOS accounting system (CentOS is migrating to
FAS)  <== we need to see the feasibility of this but that would be
optimal, that would increase the permeability between our two
contributors pools which is something, we all want to encourage.
* Create a EPEL provenpackager group under CentOS core SIG
supervision, allowing them to appoint people to maintain EPEL
packages.

I suggest that we keep the EPEL name to acknowledge EPEL historical
effort to provide quality additional packages for EL distros.
Fedora contributors would still be able to contribute to EPEL, and
CentOS contributors to make it up their standards.

Would that work for you?

Regards,
H.