On Tuesday 04 March 2003 12:39 pm, Aaron Sierra wrote: > Another interesting thing about RHN updates is that they do not stay in > sync with the source. For instance, if you pull PHP from RHN, you will get > php-4.2.2-8.0.7. However, php.net is distributing version 4.3.1. I have > yet to understand their logic for releasing updates. Any information about > this would be appreciated.
What we call a Linux distribution, like, say, Red Hat Linux 8.0, is comprised of a specific number of programs in specific versions. This is why you see that, for example, you have php-4.2.2-8.0.7 instead of php-4.3.1 The Red Hat Linux distribution (this I know as I've been part of it) is crafted using versions of packages that work well with each other and have been tested and tested and tested to make sure they work well with each other on different hardware plaftorms (x86, IA64). The packages used, as they are OpenSource, are modified to work better with each other, get more stability, fix known bugs and back-port features from newer versions. This causes the packages to be named "4.2.2.-8.0.7", as "seventh version of php-4.2.2 specialy tested for RedHatLinux 8.0". Why? Well, for testing, maintainability, saniity and "code freeze" you have to put a limit on code changes, make decision on what version are you goint to focus and make sure it is a stable and workable version. The same goes with Kernels. For example, RedHatLinux kernels contains backported patches, that is, without greatly modifying the kernel (ad changing Kernel-version), RedHat offers support for hardware theoreticaly only available in unstable branches of the kernel or bleeding-edge kernel-prereleases. So, in a way, a "Red Hat Linux 2.4.18 kernel" would provide the end user the supported hardware and bugfixin of, say, "stock" 2.4.22 kernel. Hope this helps. Salut, Josep -- Josep L. Guallar-Esteve Eastern Radiologists, Inc. Systems and Network Administration http://www.easternrad.com
