Software Collections

When working with GNU/Linux distributions, there are different life cycles of the code base contained in their package set, which can require special considerations for deployment of package sets that deviate from what is shipped in the official repository of our distribution. The examples of Enterprise Linux distributions are Red Hat Enterprise Linux, CentOS, and Scientific Linux, where the core operating system's package set is maintained to be stable, controlled, and predictable for the 10-year lifecycle of the code base. Refer to https://access.redhat.com/support/policy/updates/errata/. This comes with some implications based on how to effectively introduce updated package sets without compromising the stability and consistency of the core platform upon which we rely. This is where Software Collections come in. Software Collections is a system in which we can maintain namespaces for rpm package sets and enable them at will without affecting the system itself. This...