Request: Official Packaging for Fedora and EPEL

[kush-gupt]

Hello!

I would like to ask if flux-core (and its dependencies) could be packaged for Fedora and subsequently EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux).

Motivation

Currently, installing Flux on Enterprise Linux distributions (RHEL, CentOS Stream, etc.) requires using Spack, Conda, containers, or building from source. While super flexible, these methods could be hurdles for those who prefer something like dnf install flux-core

Getting flux-core into EPEL could provide some major benefits:

1. Standardization: It simplifies deployment for HPC centers and enterprise users relying on standard RHEL-based distros.

2. Red Hat Extensions Repository: Red Hat has announced a new RHEL Extensions Repository starting with RHEL 10. This repository will curate high-value packages directly from EPEL to be signed and distributed by Red Hat.

   • Getting flux-core into EPEL is the main prerequisite for inclusion in this stream.
   • This could significantly increase the visibility of Flux in the enterprise ecosystem!

The Process (as I understand it)

Since EPEL packages are built from Fedora sources, the roadmap for this would be:

1. Create/open-sourcing an RPM Spec file for flux-core.
2. Submitting a Package Review Request to Fedora.
3. Once accepted into Fedora, requesting an EPEL Branch (for EPEL 9/10).

Request

Is there interest from the maintainers in supporting official RPM packaging?

If not, would the team be open to a community maintainer owning the Fedora/EPEL package maintenance if a volunteer appears?

I believe this aligns well with a goal of broader adoption for the Flux Framework! Thanks for the amazing work y'all do!

Reference Links:

Fedora Package Review Process EPEL Package Request Documentation

[sam-maloney]

I've been maintaining this for some local testing at JSC, for Rocky 8 & 9 https://gitlab.jsc.fz-juelich.de/maloney2/flux-rpm

[wihobbs]

Great summary, thanks @kush-gupt! And it was nice to meet you at SC25.

We're a bit of a lean team this week with many people taking well-deserved Thanksgiving vacations but I expect there will be lots of interest in this when they're back next week. The prospect of being able to dnf install flux-core is exciting...

[grondo]

Thanks @kush-gupt! We would be thrilled to get official packages into Fedora and EPEL. However, I don't think anyone at LLNL currently has time to take on maintainership. Are you or do you have someone in mind that could take this on, with our help and input?

We do maintain packages for TOSS 4 (RHEL 8) and TOSS 5 (RHEL 9) and push src.rpms to Github releases for reference, see for example the src.rpms at https://github.com/flux-framework/flux-core/releases/tag/v0.81.0.

[kush-gupt]

@grondo I am happy to volunteer (with heavy guidance, help and input from all y'all) towards getting official flux packages for Fedora and EPEL!

Would the preferred communication mechanisms be this issue and eventual PRs?

[wihobbs]

That's great! We tend to be a heavily GitHub driven project, so this + other issues and PRs for sure. We also lean on Slack, and I sent you an invite to our workspace for collaboration and quick questions.

[grondo]

Thanks @kush-gupt! We can start with the TOSS spec files in the linked SRPMs and you can let us know what needs to be changed or updated. One of our goals is to get some test specfiles into our repo under /redhat, and then use these in CI to build and test packaging in the el8 and el8 build targets. Sounds like this would be useful for one of the fedora targets as well!