Guido van Rossum on the History of Python

Guido van Rossum created the Python language – http://www.python.org/ – and is Benevolent Dictator for Life of the Python community. He has taken Python from a hobby into one of the most popular languages today, powering internet giants like Google. He is currently employed by Google, where he spends half his time on Python. On October 20th, 2011, he spoke at Dropbox Headquarters on the roots of the language and its evolution over the last 21 years.

OBS: adding the new distribution as a build target.

Some of us build packages not for fun only, but also because it is a part of daily work. If you are and for any reasons you can’t build packages on http://build.opensuse.org (for example, due the license), you install your own OBS. In this case you will be responsible for all support and configuration stuff. Sounds difficult? I will say there is just one thing where I have a problem: addition of the new distribution as the necessary purpose for building. For example, if I installed my OBS a few months ago I can’t build packages for openSUSE 12.1, which was released a few days ago. Installing a new OBS is not the best solution in this case: you need some time for installation/configuration process and you have to move all projects there. If you need some packages for a new distribution(s) as a build target, just edit the file /srv/www/obs/api/files/distributions.xml:

<distribution vendor="openSUSE" version="12.1" id="opensuse-12.1">
 <name>openSUSE 12.1</name>
 <project>openSUSE.org:openSUSE:12.1</project>
 <reponame>openSUSE_12.1</reponame>
 <repository>standard</repository>
 <icon width="8" height="8" url="https://static.opensuse.org/distributions/logos/opensuse-12.1-8.png"/>
 <icon width="16" height="16" url="https://static.opensuse.org/distributions/logos/opensuse-12.1-16.png"/>
 <link>http://www.opensuse.org/</link>
</distribution>

and reboot OBS/MySQL/WebServer:

rclighttpd stop
rcobspublisher stop
rcobsdispatcher stop
rcobsworker stop
rcobsscheduler stop
rcobssrcserver stop
rcobsrepserver stop
rcmysql stop

rcmysql start
rcobsrepserver start
rcobssrcserver start
rcobsscheduler start
rcobsworker start
rcobsdispatcher start
rcobspublisher  start
rclighttpd start

So you can teach your OBS build packages for new distribution.

Of course a new OBS 2.2.96 (from Tools:/Unstable/openSUSE_11.4) has many sweet and interesting things which I also want to have at home. But at work, where stability is most important, I “update” OBS also like this.
Good luck and happy packaging