Updating CMake in EPEL-8: How to create a module?

[Alexander Korsunsky]

Hi there,

the version of CMake that is currently packaged with RHEL/CentOS 8 is 3.11, which is
becoming more and more outdated. Me (and a few other people, judging by bug report
participation) would quite like to have a newer version of CMake on their systems.

Now, if I understand correctly, according to the EPEL policies,
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/GuidelinesAndPolicies#Policy, it is prohibited to
replace packages from the base distribution. It is, however, allowed to replace these
packages in modules that are not enabled by default.

Unfortunately, nobody really seems to know how to build modules for EPEL. There is
documentation for Fedora: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/modularity/making-modules/
. However, being not very familiar with modularity, I have no clue which parts of the
documentation apply to EPEL, and I could not find EPEL-specific documentations and
recommendations. I have seen some threads on this list *discussing* these, but it's
hard for me to discern the consensus and best practices from mailing list threads.

Would the Modularity magicians be so kind as to reply with some pointers on how to create
modules for EPEL? If that already exists, my apologies, I hope you can direct me to that
resource.

Kind Regards,
Alexander

[Petr Pisar]

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 08:58:21AM -0000, Alexander Korsunsky wrote:
>  Hi there,
>  
>  the version of CMake that is currently packaged with RHEL/CentOS 8 is 3.11,
>  which is becoming more and more outdated. Me (and a few other people,
>  judging by bug report participation) would quite like to have a newer
>  version of CMake on their systems.
>  
>  Now, if I understand correctly, according to the EPEL policies,
>  https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/GuidelinesAndPolicies#Policy, it is
>  prohibited to replace packages from the base distribution. It is, however,
>  allowed to replace these packages in modules that are not enabled by
>  default.
>  
>  Unfortunately, nobody really seems to know how to build modules for EPEL.
>  There is documentation for Fedora:
>  https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/modularity/making-modules/ . However,
>  being not very familiar with modularity, I have no clue which parts of the
>  documentation apply to EPEL, and I could not find EPEL-specific
>  documentations and recommendations. I have seen some threads on this list
>  *discussing* these, but it's hard for me to discern the consensus and best
>  practices from mailing list threads.
>  
>  Would the Modularity magicians be so kind as to reply with some pointers on
>  how to create modules for EPEL? If that already exists, my apologies, I hope
>  you can direct me to that resource.
>   
I replied to the same question yesterday on Fedora devel list
<https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail].o...;.


-- Petr

[Neal Gompa]

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 4:58 AM Alexander Korsunsky
<fat.lobyte9(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  Hi there,
>
>  the version of CMake that is currently packaged with RHEL/CentOS 8 is 3.11, which is
> becoming more and more outdated. Me (and a few other people, judging by bug report
> participation) would quite like to have a newer version of CMake on their systems.
>  
Has anyone asked if CMake could be updated in RHEL yet? Unlike in the
CMake 2.x days, CMake 3.x tends to maintain behavioral compatibility
extraordinarily well...




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

[Alexander Korsunsky]

>  Has anyone asked if CMake could be updated in RHEL yet? 
This would be the absolute best option here, but it depends on the benevolence of Red
Hat.

I don't have a subscription and I don't know how to ask them for a rebase without
one. Maybe there's some kind of process for getting stuff into CentOS Stream? So far
the interaction with upstream seems to be limited to "create an issue on
Bugzilla".

[Orion Poplawski]

On 5/15/20 8:32 AM, Alexander Korsunsky wrote:
> > Has anyone asked if CMake could be updated in RHEL yet?
>  
>  This would be the absolute best option here, but it depends on the benevolence of Red
> Hat.
>  
>  I don't have a subscription and I don't know how to ask them for a rebase without
> one. Maybe there's some kind of process for getting stuff into CentOS Stream? So far
> the interaction with upstream seems to be limited to "create an issue on
> Bugzilla". 
That would be my suggestion:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&component=cmake

-- 
Orion Poplawski
Manager of NWRA Technical Systems          720-772-5637
NWRA, Boulder/CoRA Office             FAX: [phone]
3380 Mitchell Lane                       orion(a)nwra.com
Boulder, CO 80301                 https://www.nwra.com/

[Neal Gompa]

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 10:37 AM Orion Poplawski <orion(a)nwra.com&gt; wrote:
>  On 5/15/20 8:32 AM, Alexander Korsunsky wrote:
>  >> Has anyone asked if CMake could be updated in RHEL yet?
>  >
>  > This would be the absolute best option here, but it depends on the benevolence of
> Red Hat.
>  >
>  > I don't have a subscription and I don't know how to ask them for a rebase
> without one. Maybe there's some kind of process for getting stuff into CentOS Stream?
> So far the interaction with upstream seems to be limited to "create an issue on
> Bugzilla".
>
>  That would be my suggestion:
>
>  https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&component=cmake 
Wrong place. This is the correct one:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%...


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

[Neal Gompa]

On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 10:40 AM Neal Gompa <ngompa13(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  On Fri, May 15, 2020 at 10:37 AM Orion Poplawski <orion(a)nwra.com&gt; wrote:
>  >
>  > On 5/15/20 8:32 AM, Alexander Korsunsky wrote:
>  > >> Has anyone asked if CMake could be updated in RHEL yet?
>  > >
>  > > This would be the absolute best option here, but it depends on the benevolence
> of Red Hat.
>  > >
>  > > I don't have a subscription and I don't know how to ask them for a
> rebase without one. Maybe there's some kind of process for getting stuff into CentOS
> Stream? So far the interaction with upstream seems to be limited to "create an issue
> on Bugzilla".
>  >
>  > That would be my suggestion:
>  >
>  > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Fedora&component=cmake
>
>  Wrong place. This is the correct one:
>
>
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/enter_bug.cgi?product=Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%...
>  
I've discovered that RHEL is pushing a CMake module for RHEL 8.3:
https://git.centos.org/modules/cmake/blob/c8s-stream-rhel8/f/SOURCES/modu...

However, it would not be useful for most EPEL package builders, and
IMO, is completely unnecessary, given CMake's strong backwards
compatibility guarantees. I've filed a bug asking them to retire the
module and upgrade the base package instead:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1845910



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