[CentOS] After 5.1 update $releasever is still 5

Johnny Hughes johnny at centos.org
Sun Dec 16 12:58:29 UTC 2007


Robert Moskowitz wrote:
> I have performed the 5.1 update via the 5 repo on a couple of systems. 
> I then went to switch these systems to my new local repo using ther
> $releasever variable.  It still has the value of 5, not 5.1
> 
> Where is this set?  Why was it not changed to 5.1?
>

Just to answer this "technical question" ...

$releasever is obtained by getting the release string from a package
that is defined in the yum.conf file.

The package is set with this variable in yum.conf:

distroverpkg=

In the case of centos, that variable is either centos-release or
/etc/redhat-release.

You can see what the $releasever is with this command:

rpm -q --qf '%{VERSION}\n' centos-release

OR

rpm -q --qf '%{VERSION}\n' `rpm -q --whatprovides /etc/redhat-release`

(Both of these will work, and one is used, depending on the value of
distroverpkg= in /etc/yum.conf)

Every release of CentOS-3.x, CentOS-4.x, and CentOS-5.x has ALWAYS had
3, 4, or 5 as the $releasever.  We control WHAT /4/ or /5/ is (as a
symlink) so that we set the "Current Version" by pointing 4 to 4.5 or
4.6 and 5 to 5.0 or 5.1.  We have been doing this for 4 years.

We have NEVER had 3.5, 4.5, 5.1, etc. as a $releasever.

We MAY have a 5.1 or 4.6 as a release version for people who want to
stay on a point release (after a new version is available) as the
upstream provider releases their "z stream" releases later.  We may also
just provide CentOS-Base.repo files as replacement files that have hard
coded versions in place.

Keep in mind that other (3rd party) sites use 3, 4, 5 in their .repo
files for centos ... and if we change this (to 4.6 or 5.1), it will
possibly break their repos on your system until they take action to make
5.1 or 4.6 work on their server, or until you edit THEIR .repo files and
make changes.



> On the one clean install from the 5.1 isos, $releasever is at 5.1   I
> think.


Thanks,
Johnny Hughes

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