Features/ReworkPackageGroups

Rework Package Groups

Summary

Reorganize how the distribution is constructed and presented in anaconda to install.

Owner

• Name: Bill Nottingham
• Email: notting@redhat.com

Current status

• Targeted release: Fedora 18
• Last updated: 2012-08-01
• Percentage of completion: 85% (comps changes committed, patches in yum in updates-testing and in upstream anaconda)

Detailed Description

Currently, we use a single set of package metadata (the comps file) for both distribution construction and package categorization. This is inefficient, confusing, and leads to bad user interfaces.

Benefit to Fedora

Our various spins and releases are more cleanly and easily defined, and package selection interfaces are simplified. Users who install Fedora 18 and later upgrade will automatically get group changes for the groups that they have installed.

Scope

• New metadata is added to comps to describe installable entities + their options - DONE
• New groups are added in comps that define these - DONE
• yum is changed so that persistent groups are enabled by default -- DONE
• Support is added to yum and anaconda for reading this data and presenting it in the user interface - patches accepted, not built - Patches in rawhide yum, will be backported. Patches ready for anaconda pending this.
• spin-kickstarts is updated for any new group names
• (optional) Categories of packages for post-install selection are defined through some other metadata
  • (optional) PackageKit and yum frontends are modified to support this new metadata
• (optional) All optional packages are removed form the comps file

How To Test

• Ensure that spin-kickstarts still makes valid images
• Ensure that anaconda still allows you to select some installation package set that makes sense
• Ensure that PackageKit and yum frontends still allow package installation

User Experience

Should not be significant user interface changes outside of the general redesign of anaconda package selection.

Dependencies

• comps file
• spin-kickstarts
• anaconda
• yum
• PackageKit

Contingency Plan

None. Onward and upward!

We could back out the comps file and spin-kickstart changes, but that should not be necessary. The changes to the comps file and spin-kickstarts to allow the distribution to compose, and anaconda to install, should not be problematic.

Documentation

• None yet. We could write a guide on porting kickstart files from old group names to new group names.

Release Notes

• None

Comments and Discussion

• See Talk:Features/ReworkPackageGroups