[CentOS-devel] De-branding in CentOS Stream 9

Sat Dec 4 17:47:49 UTC 2021
Neal Gompa <ngompa13 at gmail.com>

On Sat, Dec 4, 2021 at 12:16 PM Neal Gompa <ngompa13 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Sat, Dec 4, 2021 at 11:58 AM Phil Perry <pperry at elrepo.org> wrote:
> >
> > On 23/11/2021 12:24, Alex Iribarren wrote:
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > While trying to run the CentOS functional tests on CS9[*], I noticed
> > > that several fail because of branding issues. For example,
> > > p_httpd/httpd_centos_brand_server_tokens.sh expects the server string to
> > > match `Apache.*\ (CentOS)`, when in fact the server line is:
> > >
> > > Server: Apache/2.4.51 (Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9) OpenSSL/3.0.0
> > >
> > > This got me thinking about how de-branding is supposed to work in CS9. I
> > > would guess the usual process would have to be reversed now, where Red
> > > Hat would remove the CentOS brand from CS9 packages and add the Red Hat
> > > brand for the RHEL 9.0 builds, but clearly this isn't happening yet. I
> > > guess this is an oversight?
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Alex
> > >
> > > [*] I know, I know, but I have to run *something* before you guys
> > > release your own functional test suite for CS9!
> >
> > In the absence of anyone from the project commenting, I'm wondering how
> > RHEL branding could have possibly got into a CentOS Stream release in
> > the first place?
> >
> > The pictorial representation we are given is clear:
> >
> > https://blog.centos.org/2021/12/introducing-centos-stream-9/
> >
> > CentOS Stream is forked from Fedora Rawhide and exists upstream of any
> > RHEL release so it's hard to envisage how this could possibly have
> > happened. Surely now it is a case of RH removing CentOS branding for
> > their RHEL release if Stream is truly the upstream development of RHEL?
> >
> > Wouldn't it be simpler to just call it RHEL Stream and do away with the
> > extra layer of obfuscation and confusion, as that's more what it looks
> > like (if it walks like a duck...)
>
> That would be a significant deviation of Red Hat's own brand strategy.
> *All* of Red Hat's products have a "project brand" and a "product
> brand".
>
> This has two major advantages:
>
> 1. It enshrines branding as an aspect of differentiation for the Red
> Hat offering
> 2. It makes it easy for third parties to make their own branded
> product offerings based on the project and strengthen the ecosystem.
>
> In this particular case with Apache HTTPD, it's happening because
> CentOS Stream uses the "Red Hat Enterprise Linux" BZ support product,
> and that's how it gets set at build-time.
>
> See here: https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/httpd/-/blob/9d1c57410b67b48856876b6068b36bd3d1aa32d5/httpd.spec#L6
>
> It's an easy fix, I'll have it proposed momentarily.
>

Done: https://gitlab.com/redhat/centos-stream/rpms/httpd/-/merge_requests/37



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真実はいつも一つ!/ Always, there's only one truth!