Hi all,

I’m curious how many people are using RPM-based operating systems for running Koha. I know the majority are probably using Debian/Ubuntu, but I reckon there’s probably more Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE folk than we might think!

I noticed back in 2013 that Nicholas van Oudt had put together a RPM for Koha for Fedora. The link in nabble didn’t work anymore, but I’m curious how many people have their own RPM spec files drifting around. I taught myself how to package RPMs back in June, and I package RPMs for a different much smaller Perl project, but I’m not willing to be a RPM manager for Koha. That said, I’m happy to test and QA RPM spec files. The cpanspec tool in Fedora/EPEL is also amazing for converting CPAN modules into RPMs.  The openSUSE version is awful unfortunately, and I haven’t had time yet to investigate with the openSUSE people about fixing it.

I’ve noticed a few SELinux commands in some Koha code as well. I think Marcel might have included those. I think a reasonable alternative would be to do a custom policy module for Koha, which perhaps could be hosted in a community yum repository.

We use openSUSE, so I wouldn’t be looking to support Fedora/RHEL myself, but maybe if we started making some infrastructure, it could make it easier for the RPM using members of the Koha community.

I know many are probably fearful of opening the door to RPMs since it could make support more difficult… so maybe we could have anything RPM-related be unofficial. Maybe treat it like contribs instead of part of Koha proper.

Anyway, just an idea. If nothing else, maybe we RPM-based Koha people could put together a listserv to share RPM-based system issues. That could in theory relieve pressure from the Debian users when people ask them how to install Koha on CentOS/Fedora/RHEL, etc.?

David Cook

Systems Librarian

Prosentient Systems

72/330 Wattle St

Ultimo, NSW 2007

Australia

Office: 02 9212 0899

Direct: 02 8005 0595