[sahughes-rpms 1] Welcome to sahughes-rpms-announce

[Scott A. Hughes]

Welcome to the sahughes-rpms-announce mailing list.

This mailing list is for announcements of RPM Packages provided by
Scott A. Hughes of S. A. Hughes Consulting.

Please be sure to read this introductory message in its entirety, as it
provides fundamental information that will help you make the best use of
this mailing list and the RPMs to be announced via it.

I, Scott A. Hughes, have been maintaining and rebuilding RPMs for Red Hat
Linux for a few years now, and more recently have been doing the same for
Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora Core.

Up until now I had kept a simple log of the RPMs I released in a text
file, which was updated as the RPMs were made public. Not all RPMs were
mentioned in the log, and not all (but most) of them were released. What I
believe was lacking all along, though, was an explanation of their
function, the purpose or reason for which they were built or re-built, the
changes I had made, upgrading issues, etc.

It is therefore with much pleasure that I open this mailing list dedicated
to providing such information as the RPMs are released.

RPMs will be provided for Linux distributions and releases listed as
supported on the S. A. Hughes Consulting website. These distributions and
releases will change over time as new ones arrive and others are retired.

I hope that this list and my small contribution will be of service to
organisations, individuals and the greater open-source community.

The download URL at which I will release the RPMs announced on this
mailing list is as follows.

http://ftp.sanguine.net/pub/sahughes/rhx/

I ask that any linking to this site be done only to the top directory, and
not directly to the packages or sub-directories.

I am simultaneously starting an identical mailing list in Japanese, also
with a dedicated download URL. The package contents of both the rhx URLs
are exactly the same - only the languages in which explanations are given
differ. You can find the Japanese resources by adding "ja/" (without the
quotes) onto the URL above.

Most package announcements will be made to both mailing lists, unless the
packages are language-specific, such as those for Japanese use
(squirrelmail-ja, samba-ja, mailman-ja, etc.), in which case they will
only be announced via the Japanese mailing list. Any Japanese language
specific packages will be named with the -ja suffix.

In providing these RPMs, my objectives include the following.

- Provide some original packages that are otherwise not available.
- Improve packages that are already available, such as ones not released
in the standard Red Hat packaging style (non-standard init scripts, etc.).
- Update some packages that are of particular use to myself and my clients
more frequently than the original package maintainer.
- Ensure that all packages verify (rpm -V) cleanly after installation.
- Provide cleaner and more convenient packages than originally available
by making small adjustments and changes that are sometimes overlooked in
other packages.

Some of the RPMs I will announce via this list will be original, others
won't. Many of the packages I provide will in fact be rebuilds of those
provided by other RPM maintainers. Details specific to each package will
be announced as the RPMs are made public. Often my changes will simply be
an added or deleted compile option, or the creation of a newer version
using someone else's spec file.

Changelogs (rpm -qip --changelog) can be used to verify any package's
history. At this early stage I can say that we will be benefitting from
the wonderful work of Matthias Saou (http://freshrpms.net/), The Fedora
Project (http://fedora.redhat.com/) and of course Red Hat
(http://www.redhat.com/). The RPMs made by these people and organisations
are excellent, and I learn much by studying their spec files.

The software packages that I provide are primarily for use in a server
environment (such as those for use with an email server, a couple of which
are mentioned above), rather than a desktop environment (music players,
games, etc.).

Any constructive feedback regarding my RPMs is encouraged and will be
greatly appreciated. If you believe that there is a problem with the
packaging of any of my releases, please let me know.  I will attempt to
fix such problems as quickly as I can, and your input will help increase
my response time.

S. A. Hughes Consulting provides "Linux and Open Source Software Oriented
Computer Systems and Network Consulting, Integration and Support, Software
Development and Sales". Custom RPM packaging, including that for
commercial applications, is part of these offerings. It is hoped that
while many enjoy my free services, some will indulge in paying for them.

While I will endeavour to provide trustworthy and reliable packages in a
timely fashion, I make no guarantees of such free services, nor do I
accept any implied or explicit responsibility nor liability for problems
associated with the use of packages downloaded from my site. If you want
someone to blame for your server or network problems, then pay me for the
privilege :p .

Best regards,

Scott.

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       Scott A. Hughes        | BBus, BA, MComMgmt, RHCE, RHCX
   S. A. Hughes Consulting    | Email: sahughes at sanguine.net
        Tokyo, JAPAN          | Mobile (Japan): +81-90-885-44888
http://www.sahughes.net/ (en) | http://www.sahughes.jp/ (ja)
Key fingerprint = 6044 BEB9 73E3 E371 2729  8694 F125 B6E3 458A 3EC9

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