EPEL Next
EPEL packages are built against RHEL. EPEL Next is an additional repository that allows package maintainers to alternatively build against CentOS Stream. This is sometimes necessary when CentOS Stream contains an upcoming RHEL library rebase, or if an EPEL package has a minimum version build requirement that is already in CentOS Stream but not yet in RHEL. EPEL Next has its own distgit branches, koji build targets, and bodhi releases.
EPEL Next packages have .next appended to the disttag (e.g. a disttag of
.el8.next for epel8-next) to provide an upgrade path from an EPEL package
that was built from the same distgit commit. A package maintainer can rebuild
the same commit for both EPEL and EPEL Next and get two different NVRs in koji.
Within six months, the build requirement necessitating building in EPEL Next
should be in RHEL, and at that time the package maintainer can do a normal
release bump commit in the EPEL branch and get a newer NVR than both the
previous EPEL and EPEL Next packages.
To get started with EPEL Next, request the corresponding branch for the EPEL release you are targeting, e.g. request an epel8-next branch to rebuild an epel8 package against CentOS Stream 8. Once the branch is created you can merge commits from other branches and submit a build just like you would for other EPEL or Fedora branches.
FAQ
How do I enable EPEL Next?
dnf install epel-next-release
If I build my package in EPEL do I also need to build my package in EPEL Next?
Probably not. Due to the strong compatibility guarantees of RHEL, most EPEL packages built against RHEL install just fine on CentOS Stream. But there are some situations where it is necessary to rebuild an EPEL package to get it to install on CentOS Stream, and EPEL Next exists to provide package maintainers a place to do just that.
Are all EPEL packages also in EPEL Next?
No. EPEL Next is designed to be a small overlay on top of EPEL. The epel-next-release package requires epel-release.
Why isn't this called EPEL Stream?
The term stream is already massively overloaded. "Next" correctly describes the purpose of the repository, which is providing packages compatible with the next minor release of RHEL. Additionally, EPEL Next isn't exclusively useful for CentOS Stream. It's also useful for:
- RHEL Beta releases.
- RHEL itself temporarily at minor release time when an EPEL package needs to be rebuilt but hasn't been yet.