Fedora Backports Repository for CentOS 5

Sometimes I need something more recent than is found in the current version of CentOS. This repository contains just that, things that are (usually) in CentOS but more recent versions thereof.

I mainly get the packages from the latest stable version of Fedora Backports, which is currently fedora 12. These are recompiled under 32 & 64 bit CentOS 5 and made available here. I have usually run programs in the package, but I do not do any testing over and above my needs in back porting the program in the first place. These programs come with no guarantee of servicability; I will usually track new versions when they appear in the latest stable fedora tree.

Some I get straight from the package source, but I attempt to keep it compatable with the CentOS/RedHat. Exim will be like this - when I get round to it.

The are packages that I have needed, there is no attempt to build the latest version of everything.

I do not provide source for these packages, you can get them yourself from the Fedora 12 release or Fedora 12 updates directories. On occasion I have had to patch a package to get it to compile, there are a few ad hoc notes.

To see what there is list of contents.

There is an announce mail list for this software that you may wish to subscribe to. You might wish to peruse The Software-announce Archives. This list is moderated and it is highly unlikely that subscriber postings will be approved.

How to use it

You can access the repo either by using Yum or Rsync (probably in combination with mrepo).

Using Yum

Important: you probably don't want to import everything in this repository, so it is important that you list those that you do want.
Beware: new packages may be added to this repository at any time, this could trigger an update that you had not planned - it may break things.

This is why you need to have the includepkgs= in the stanza for the repository, see the example below. Note, however, that package names change a bit with time, thus the dependencies also change: so you may find that to install/update a package you need to also include other packages.

You need to:

create the file /etc/yum.repos.d/phcl_fedora_backports.repo with the contents:

    # Parliament Hill Computers Ltd - Fedora backports for CentOS repository
    [fedora_backports]
    name=Fedora backports for CentOS-$releasever
    baseurl=http://www.phcomp.co.uk/Software/centos$releasever-$basearch/RPMS.fedora_backports/
    gpgcheck=1
    protect=0
    enabled=1
    includepkgs=php-* libedit t1lib
    gpgkey=http://www.phcomp.co.uk/Software/RPM-GPG-KEY-PHCL-CentOS-5

Clean out the yum cache (recommended):
```
    yum clean all
```
Install packages with:
```
    yum install package-name
```

Using Rsync

You can browse the repository with rsync like this:

    rsync rsync://www.phcomp.co.uk/downloads/

Once you have found what you want download a specific RPM with something like:

    rsync rsync://www.phcomp.co.uk/downloads/centos5-x86_64/fedora_backports/php-5.3.1-3.x86_64.rpm .

Using mrepo

mrepo is a way of maintaining an RPM repository.

You will already have a suitable file in /etc/mrepo.conf.d/, you append this line:

    fedora_backports = rsync://www.phcomp.co.uk/downloads/centos$release-$arch/fedora_backports/

and fetch and build with:

    mrepo -qug

Then follow the Using Yum instructions above, but change the baseurl to point to your server.

Notes on porting

PHP

php.spec.patch