Re: Binary/source for 7.4.3

On Tuesday 29 June 2004 10:55, Tom Lane wrote:
> I need to re-roll those because I forgot to update the JDBC driver jars
> to the latest version :-(. But they're good as far as the other
> components go.

Once Tom has rerolled them, those RPMs shoud be considered 'canonical' for
FC2. I need to download them once Tom has rerolled and see what sort of
changes are going on.

On this topic, I would like to poll the group. Please reply off-list and I'll
sumarize the responses I get in one week. If you feel you want to reply to
the list, well, go ahead, but I'd prefer direct replies.

The question I have is this:
Now that the various distributions are getting much better at keeping up with
PostgreSQL, in particular, since Tom Lane is rolling packages for Fedora
Core, what is the group's thoughts about my role?

Pro: I have been doing this a while.
Con: I am not paid to do this; thus, it is not high priority for me. Like
with 7.4.3, I simply have not had time to work on them due to Real Work
issues. Some cycles I have had RPMs available concurrently with the release;
some cycles I have not had them.

Pro: I still want to do this, but I do not want to deviate from what Tom is
doing. I pretty well know Tom's thinking; he wants me to continue to work on
it even though he is responsible for the FC set. Tom is pretty easy to work
with.
Con: too many cooks spoil the meal.

What is the group's thinking? I want to hear both pro and con. The two
primary reasons I started doing this were:
1.) The distributions were not keeping up;
2.) Upgrading was a bear.

Well, upgrading is still a bear, and now the distributions are keeping up
better than before. I have been rebuilding for older distributions; however,
as I modernize my datacenters I keep relying on others for that, too. Now
that Aurora SPARC Linux is getting up to FC2-level, my ability to keep
buildability on Red Hat 7.3 (which is the base for the present Aurora build)
is going to be eliminated, as I will be bringing my cluster of Ultras up to
the latest build.

People have asked about builds for Red Hat AS 2.1, which is one I cannot build
for.

Anyone who wants to take this over would need to clearly state to me and the
list what they wold expect to do for older distributions and how they would
work with the group. I care deeply for the project; but someone else could
as well.

Maybe we need to think about whether we even want to be in the binary RPM
business at all at this point. I'll continue doing this is the group wants
me to do so and if it is useful for people.

I do not expect to do anything about this until after 7.5 is released, because
I have things I want to do for that release. However, I may appoint someone
for 7.4.x maintenance if the group thinks it is necessary. I already have a
volunteer to do so who is part of the group, so I'm not asking for
volunteers.

But I fully intend to do the 7.5 release. After that we'll see.
--
Lamar Owen
Director of Information Technology
Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute
1 PARI Drive
Rosman, NC 28772
(828)862-5554
www.pari.edu