CentOS 5.2 timescale?

[Julian]

Newbie alert, but I did search for "5.2" but didn't find anything. I also looked at the FAQ and see that fixes are targeted to be up as RPMs within 72 hours of the upstream vendor producing them and usually within 24 hours but maybe a new dot release is a different matter and I couldn't find anything relating to that so I hope I've done enough pre-searching for this to not be an annoying/inappropriate question (sorry if it is).

Anyway, I saw this today announcing RHEL5.2: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/21/red_hat_enterprsie_linux_big_servers/

Will this trigger a CentOS 5.2 release and, if so, then are there any defined timescales for this? I'm planning to install CentOS on a couple of new systems but I've got other stuff that I can jump ahead of this in the next couple of weeks so I'm trying to work out my schedule to see if it is sensible to delay so that I get 5.2 (assuming the above will trigger it).

- Julian

[NedSlider]

Yes, a CentOS 5.2 release will follow the upstream RHEL 5.2 release.

Please see this post from core developer Johnny Hughes regarding timescales for update releases:

http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=11376&forum=42&post_id=36992#forumpost36992

So we are probably looking at 2-4 weeks after an upstream release depending how things go with building and testing the new packages.

Hope that helps,

Ned

[AlanBartlett]

I think, [b]Ned[/b], that we should congratulate [b]Julian[/b] (a fellow countryman no less :-) ) in being the first to comment on [i]upstream's[/i] release of the second update.

Please accept this :pint: that I've managed to liberate from [b]Ned's[/b] store-cupboard.

[NedSlider]

so [i]that's[/i] where my beer went :-P

Indeed. I still haven't seen the official release announcement yet, but I did find this:

http://www.redhat.com/about/news/prarchive/2008/rhel_5_2.html

[michaelnel]

[quote]
AlanJBartlett wrote:
Please accept this :pint: that I've managed to liberate from [b]Ned's[/b] store-cupboard.[/quote]

Izzat beer room temperature?

[toracat]

Just a peek of some "insider" info here... :-D

With the official release of the RHEL 5.2, the CentOS QA team is now preparing for the first build of CentOS 5.2. The QA team leader's announcement:

"We are expecting the first release of usable tree of packages in the coming week and install media in 2 weeks."

Then there will be translation work of the Release Notes, etc. So, maybe, and just maybe, CentOS 5.2 will be ready in the 2nd or the 3rd week of June.

[NedSlider]

[quote]
toracat wrote:
Just a peek of some "insider" info here... :-D

[/quote]

Thanks toracat :-)

I suspect the community would also appreciate if you could possibly keep us updated on the progress and likely timescales as things progress, but like you I would hazard a guess of around the 3rd week in June judging from previous releases.

[NedSlider]

Some more information on CentOS 5.2 timescales:

Karanbir has put up a Wiki page here giving [b]estimated[/b] timescales:

http://wiki.centos.org/KaranbirSingh/5.2

Tim Verhoeven made a blog posting here giving some information regarding timescales and what's involved in getting CentOS 5.2 released:

http://planet.centos.org/

[quote]Before everyone starts asking questions let's get this cleared up here :-) Upstream released version 5.2 of their Enterprise Linux distribution on the 21th. So I understand that you are all wanting to now when CentOS 5.2 will be released.

Well, looking back at 5.1 we see that upsteam released 5.1 on November 7th 2007. CentOS 5.1 was released on December 2th 2007. So there was a delay of 3,5 weeks before the release of CentOS 5.1

So when can we expect CentOS 5.2 then, well using the same 3,5 weeks we end up with a date of around June 14th 2008. This is of course a estimate it can be later or earlier.


For some background information, why does it take 3,5 weeks ? First we need to remove all the logos and trademarks of Upstream. Secondly we need to build everything from source and this for both i386 and x86_64. Then everything that gets build goes past the QA team that verify that everything works as it should. From all the build packages install media will be created and these also need to be tested by the QA team. For each release a set of release notes are created and these are translated in different languages (12 for 5.1). Finally all the packages and media need to be uploaded in distributed to the mirror network so you can download it .

So this is why it takes a couple of weeks for a CentOS release to come out and remember that all this is done by volunteers and we could always use some more. So if you have some spare time and are willing to help you can make yourself known in the centos-devel mailinglist.[/quote]

[toracat]

Just a short note to say that Karanbir's estimate is a bit too optimistic. Tim's is more realistic. A few core CentOS guys (including the QA lead Tim Verhoeven) will be at the LinuxTag event between May 28 and 31, so, some delay is unavoidable.

[gritsul]

Any news on Release Schedule for CentOS 5.2?