[CentOS-devel] Dealing with unshipped -devel packages in CentOS Linux 8 and CentOS Stream

Hi Folks,

We were exploring ways to deal with devel packages that are unshipped
upstream in RHEL 8, but which are required at build-time in SIG
deliverables, or for software that you might want to build at home.

We just pushed the Devel variant to the mirrors, as soon the mirror
network coalesces, you can find this repository at:
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8/Devel, OR
http://mirror.centos.org/centos/8-Stream/Devel

We are currently in the process of including a .repo file (disabled by
default) in centos-release. Look for an update to that soon.

Special thanks to James Antill, who did most of the compose work on this
variant.

Here are some questions that you might have, and some answers:

## What is the Devel repo for?

We envision using the Devel repo for packages that are unshipped in
CentOS Linux/CentOS Stream but needed for build-time dependencies of
other packages. Devel is *NOT* meant to satisfy runtime dependencies or
for long term use on general purpose machines.

## How do I use the Devel repo?

We will soon ship repo files in centos-release-8.1-1.1911.0.9.el8 and
centos-release-stream-8.1-1.1911.0.9.el8, once those are installed you
can enable the Devel repo by running:

dnf config-manager --enable Devel (on CentOS Linux), OR

dnf config-manager --enable Stream-Devel (on CentOS Stream)

Reminder: this repo is *not* for general purpose use, and is only
recommended for buildtime activities only.

## How do I ask for an unshipped package to be included in Devel?

Please file a bug on bugs.centos.org
Project: CentOS-8
Category: _unreleased_devel_packages

Give us a short description of the -devel package that you need, and a
description of what the -devel package is used to build.

## Why do you need to know what the -devel packages are used for?

We ask for that information to better understand the impact of not
including them in a normal release artifact. This is an information
gathering opportunity and is *not* for making inclusion/rejection
judgements for Devel

## Why isn't my package included yet?

We began with a small subset of requests to test our compose and
delivery configs. We plan to close out bugs that are fixed with this
push shortly, and then process the rest of the queue. Stay tuned to your
open bugs if you have them.

## Why not include *all* unshipped components in Devel?

One reason is that we want to gather impact information that we can
communicate upstream.

More importantly, Red Hat has decided that these unshipped packages are
lower in bugfix/update priority compared to the ones that made it into
RHEL. In very limited cases, we may not see updates to such packages
through the usual source-drop process, we need to maintain a list so
that the CentOS team can monitor those packages more closely.



Happy Building!

--

Brian Stinson