Re: [gentoo-server] Stable Portage tree

[Phillip Berry]

On Saturday 24 September 2005 14:48, Sean Cook wrote:
> > On Fri, 2005-09-23 at 17:01 +0000, Eduardo Tongson wrote:
> >> What makes CentOS 4.1 "more" stable than gentoo care to elaborate?
> >
> > The beauty of running a binary based GNU/Linux distribution not
> > particularly on CentOS alone but in general (includes Debian, Red Hat,
> > SuSE, Mandriva, etc.) is before the updates are released to the public
> > it has been tested and compiled for use in enterprise production use.
> > When I say updates here it doesn't mean of a new version number of the
> > packages.  Instead, the security and bug fixes for the packages
> > installed in the system.
>
> so obviously we need to exclude operating systems like FreeBSD and OpenBSD
> for any type of production use because they do not have binary packages?
>
> > This is also the issue raised by Mr. Phillip Berry who started this
> > thread.  I for one wants to have a Gentoo system in an enterprise
> > production use.  This is not about bleeding edge, optimization,
> > performance and control.
>
> Gentoo is stable and is not bleeding edge unless you are using keywords
> and unmasking from the stable distro.
>
> > Try to think of managing 100 servers all running Gentoo on 5 to 10
> > different offices/companies with different services and customed
> > applications in production use.  Do you think you can still manage all
> > of them?
>
> this assumes that one could manage 100 server of any distro in this
> manor... in fact gentoo lends itself to this environment better that most
> linux distrobutions because of portage overlays that allow you to tag
> specific machines for beta and production based on packages.  It also
> allow you to build multiple packages and distribute them from a single
> source after testing.
>
> By the time you get to 20 servers anyway if you are using cvs (or other)
> to maintain config files and certain aspects of the os you are asking for
> trouble.
>
> That being said may we put this thread to rest?  Gentoo is perfectly
> capable of running in a production environment, I have personally have 15
> servers all running gentoo 2005.1.  I also have several debian servers and
> freebsd servers.... it is all simply a matter of comfort.  you should
> never put any system into a production environment unless your comfortable
> admining that system... period.  So lets stop the pissing contest of my
> distro can beat up your distro and get to the real issues.
>
> > ---
> > Linux GNUbie <gnubieATgmailDOTcom>
> >
> > --
> > gentoo-server@g.o mailing list

Hello,

With respect, i would rather not put this thread to rest just yet. An 
interesting discourse has been created, unfortunately it was temporarily 
dragged into a distribution war, that is over now.  The original thread is 
100% on topic, myself, and various other gentlemen have expressed our 
interest in some sort of stable portage tree.

I would like to take this moment to explore the core problem that i have 
experienced, because i am certain that my original position has been lost 
within the recent exchange.  

My wish has little to do with 'enterprise support' or Gentoos readiness for a 
production environment, it is simply an request for improvement on how those 
of us who do run Gentoo on servers manage them.

After some thought, it occurs to me that the solution that requires minimal 
work from the already overworked volunteers may be as simple as some 
reasonable tools to manage existing portage functionality, consider the 
following, based upon Svens advice to manually backport ebuilds ;

1. Automated generation of a portage overlay based on the currently installed 
packages, these would then be safe from sync. The tool would need to be able 
to drag ebuilds out of some sort of archive for existing machines.
2. An easy way to introduce and manage and remove ebuilds in the overlay

Wouldn't that be a reasonably stable tree?  It means there is no major 
architectural changes to Gentoo, but then allows administrators the 
flexibility to determine what is stable, what version to sit on and when to 
upgrade.

Thankyou for reading this far, i hope my suggestions and ideas are both 
reasonable and useful.

Kind Regards
Phil
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