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Revision as of 22:45, 19 June 2010 by Dafrito (talk | contribs) (Reworded the introduction to be more specific in the definition, along with making it refer explicitly to a critical path package rather than the 'critical path')

For information on the proposal, see Critical Path Packages Proposal.

A critical path package is a specially managed package in Fedora that provides some essential or core functionality. Updates for critical path packages must undergo additional verification before they can be distributed to the community at large.

Background

The critical path was proposed and defined as part of a Fedora Activity Day.

Scope

Packages within the critical path are required to perform the most fundamental actions on a system. Those actions include:

  • graphical network install
  • post-install booting
  • decrypt encrypted filesystems
  • graphics
  • login
  • networking
  • get updates
  • minimal buildroot
  • compose new trees
  • compose live

Implementation

A set of groups are defined in the comps.xml file to include packages required for the critical use cases listed above. Since package dependencies change regularly, the comps.xml groups are then used to dynamically generate the list of packages.

The critical path package groups in comps.xml are listed below:

@core
@critical-path-base
@critical-path-gnome
@critical-path-apps
@critical-path-kde
@critical-path-lxde
@critical-path-xfce

More information on comps.xml is available at How_to_use_and_edit_comps.xml_for_package_groups.

Maintainer Responsibilities

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FIXME
This section needs to be updated.

If a package is added to the critical path list as a result of normal package dependency the package maintainer will be notified through direct email and the extra processes they have to go through. (IS THIS TRUE)

If they do not wish to maintain the packages with these extra processes then they have to orphan the package. A new maintainer will need to be found.

Tester Responsibilities

The proventesters FAS group is responsible for ensuring minimal disruption to the critical actions listed above. If you would like to join proventesters, check out QA/JoinProvenTesters. General test instructions for proventesters is available at User:Adamwill/Draft_proventesters_instructions.

Where can I find the critical path?

The critical path package list is generated daily during the mash process for both rawhide and branched.

The most recent list of critical path packages are available at: