[CentOS-devel] Balancing the needs around the CentOS platform

On Sun, 20 Dec 2020 at 22:19, Mark Mielke <mark.mielke at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 20, 2020 at 6:34 PM Gordon Messmer <gordon.messmer at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > On 12/19/20 8:27 PM, Nico Kadel-Garcia wrote:
> > > On Sat, Dec 19, 2020 at 12:29 PM Matthew Miller <mattdm at mattdm.org>
> wrote:
> > >> It's important to note that the CentOS Linux rebuild never actually
> had
> > >> this. RHEL minor releases are actually branches, and you can stay at
> a minor
> > >> release and still get security updates.
> > > Are you saying the
> > > CentOS point releases do *not* match as closely as possible the
> > > corresponding RHEL point release?
> > No, no one is saying that.  Matthew said that you can stay at a minor
> > release of RHEL and still get security updates.  CentOS does not offer
> that.
>
> This is not correct. Please stop saying it. CentOS is bug-for-bug
> compatible with RHEL for *active* releases.
>
>
We came up with the phrase "bug-for-bug" compatible during EL5 as a GOAL to
aim for. CentOS was NEVER bug-for-bug compatible. We aimed for it like a
target to get to but we also had to release the software eventually and
don't have the extensive testing mechanisms to prove 'bug-for-bug'
compatibility. Sometimes CentOS shipped packages which did not have a
particular bug because we could not exactly duplicate the build environment
and other times we added new bugs because our build environment is not
exactly the same.

Over the years as software has grown in greater complexity this divergence
has become more likely. Modularity, software like rust, go, etc all require
long build chains where any 'divergence' can introduce or remove bugs
without a quick way to test.

At best, CentOS has been "good-enough" compatible for a set of years. The
only way to be bug-for-bug compatible would require a reproducible build
and test environment.



-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.
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