Goals

When I opened this repository, my first goal was to share the small backport stuff I do for my job of this time (an university), mostly for old Fedora version.

Then I added various repositories, for newer Fedora versions, RHEL and CentOS (and some other clones), I also increase the number of packages available, covering the LAMP stack (Apache, PHP, MySQL) and some applications.

Today: I choose to concentrate myself mostly on the PHP stack, to make available recent PHP versions, most of the existing extensions and their dependencies to RPM distribution users.

Upstream

Initially the repository was providing backported packages from Fedora, but for years now, I'm also a Fedora contributor / packager.

Today: the repository is the upstream for the packages I maintain in Fedora. (including PHP and of lot of extensions and libraries).

So the changes happen first in remi, then in Fedora, then in the other 3rd party repositories which provide backports (ex php 7.0).

PHP update Policy

At the beginning, the repository was only providing the latest PHP version in the single "remi" repository, so major update was sometime required (e.g. 5.2 to 5.3)

Today: since Fedora 19 and EL-7, the PHP version in the "remi" is the same major version than the base distribution (e.g. 5.6 in Fedora 21, 5.4 in EL-7), and will never change. Only minor updates will be pushed (5.4.43 in remi, 5.4.16 in EL-7). Other more recent versions are in separate reppository (e.g. remi-php56 or remi-php70).

Others packages update Policy

Some people criticize the replacement of various packages when "remi" repository is enabled, which I understand, and can be sometime complex for new comers.

Today:

The "remi-safe" repository is 'really" safe, and doesn't replace any package from the base distribution. Only this repository is enabled by default.

Each "remi-php*" repository is not enabled by default, and when enabled only replace PHP (with its extensions) and nothing else. So updating PHP is a admin choice, and only PHP will be updated, so can be considered as safe.

The main "remi" repository is not enabled by default, it can be used for installing some others packages, and filtered using the includepkgs / exclude yum options. It is not designed to be safe, so should be used with caution (i.e. checking the yum transaction summary before accepting it).

More information

Please read the FAQ. and stay aware of changes reading this blog.

Also remember there is a forum and a IRC channel.