[BlueOnyx:15155] Re: EPEL

[Michael Stauber]

Hi Michael,

> I need a package from Extra Packages for Enterprise
> Linux repository (EPEL)
> 
> Is it safe to add this repo to BX?

Nope!

EPEL has a lot of things that are incompatible with BlueOnyx. If you
activate the EPEL repository and run a "yum update" against it, your
server will be dead in the water. The GUI will stop working and lots of
other services will also go titsup.com.

Off and on I like to grab things from EPEL myself. I usually just grab
the single RPM that I want and download and install it directly without
activating the EPEL repository itself.

The more complex dependencies that single RPM has, the bigger is the
chance that a "yum install" of that RPM will cause issues. So you need
to be really, really careful there.

As for which EPEL version? EPEL5 for CentOS5 and EPEL6 for RHEL6 clones
such as CentOS6 and SL6.

If you really need to YUM install your EPEL stuff and therefore want to
install the epel-release-*.noarch.rpm, you must be ABSOLUTELY sure to
immediately remove it after you have yum installed your EPEL stuff.
because the next time the automated "yum update" runs, it'll break your
box with the stuff from EPEL.

But like said: Complex dependencies are your enemy. If you try to "yum
install" a certain EPEL RPM, check the list of RPMs that it wants to
install. Copy and paste it to a file, too. Because if stuff from that
list breaks your box, you will want to know what you need to remove
(and/or reinstall) from the CentOS/SL/BlueOnyx mirrors to get your box
working again.

So all in all it is possible to install stuff from EPEL. But it requires
a lot of caution, because the potential of breaking your box is pretty
high.

That's why we usually don't suggest it.

-- 
With best regards

Michael Stauber