On Fri, Nov 25, 2005 at 01:09:10PM -0000, Lunt, Nick wrote: > > From: Ed Wilts [mailto:ewilts@xxxxxxxxxx] > > There are a few things you need to be aware of - the main one is that > > you do NOT end up with RHEL when you're done. You end up > > with something > > very close to RHEL but there are 3rd party applications that won't > > install or run, and there may be bugs in the binaries that the > > rebuilders have built that aren't in the Red Hat binaries (this has > > happened in the past because the compilers Red Hat used to build the > > binaries weren't the same ones as they were shipping). > > thats a new one on me. Do you have any examples of incompatibilities > and/or bugs ? We use some CentOS boxes in a dev environment and have > had no issues .. yet ;) Both cases are rare so it's quite possible that you've not run into them. At least one was related to one of the dhcp packages. Red Hat discovered a compiler bug when building the package. They fixed the compiler but didn't release the new compiler right away since it hadn't gone through a full QA cycle (it's since been released). Red Hat's released binary functioned perfectly but anybody who created their own binary from the released source rpm had issues. I've seen some 3rd party packages from HP that check for the contents of /etc/redhat-release. That kind of check will break. For example, on my home system, this file reads: # cat /etc/redhat-release Tao Linux release 4 (Sponge Update 2) whereas on one of my work systems, it's: # cat /etc/redhat-release Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES release 4 (Nahant Update 2) In earlier incarnations of the rebuilds (and this may be true in some of the current ones too), the kernel version was renamed - ie, instead of something like 2.4.9-1.EL you'd see 2.4.9-1.TL (I made those versions up) and some 3rd party software installations would fail. It's actually fairly easy for a 3rd party developer to make it really hard for their package to install on a rebuild. Some developers are simply perverted. I'm not going to say that the various rebuilds shouldn't be used, since you can see in my note that I'm running one at home. For users who don't need any Red Hat support, can afford to wait an extra day (or 2 or more) for a package to be updated after Red Hat has released the source rpm, and don't run too many weird and wonderful 3rd packages, a rebuild may be good enough. Personally, I run a rebuild at home but all of my work systems are fully subscribed RHEL distributions. Red Hat Professional Workstation was affordable for my home use but none of the RHEL choices today are and Fedora is too bleeding edge for my liking. .../Ed -- Ed Wilts, RHCE Mounds View, MN, USA mailto:ewilts@xxxxxxxxxx Member #1, Red Hat Community Ambassador Program -- redhat-list mailing list unsubscribe mailto:redhat-list-request@xxxxxxxxxx?subject=unsubscribe https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/redhat-list
