Proposed official change to EPEL guidelines: modules and RHEL

[Matthew Miller]

I've been saying this for a while as if it's fact, but of course it's not
actually fact until approved, so I'm puting this to the EPEL team to
hopefully do so.

The current guidelines * say:

   EPEL packages should only enhance and never disturb the Enterprise Linux
   distributions they were built for. Thus packages from EPEL should never
   replace packages from the target base distribution - including those on the
   base distribution as well as layered products; kernel-modules further are
   not allowed, as they can disturb the base kernel easily.

With modularity in EPEL 8, we have the opportunity to allow more flexibility
while preserving the primary goal of not disturbing the base distribution.
Therefore, I propose adding:

  In EPEL 8 or later, it is permitted to have module streams which contain
  packages with alternate versions to those provided in RHEL. These packages
  may be newer, built with different options, or even older to serve
  compatibility needs. These MUST NOT be the default stream -- in every
  case, explicit user action must be required to opt in to these versions.


(Note that the base package _does not_ have to be part of a module for this
to work.)

What do you think?


*
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/EPEL/GuidelinesAndPolicies#Packaging_Guide...
-- 
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org&gt;
Fedora Project Leader