On 7 May 2015 at 13:36, Vinod Gupta <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> CMS is one of about twenty Physics groups here in Princeton University. We
> have our own Linux distribution based on RHEL with a few Princeton specific
> home grown RPMs. The CMS group has been using SL. We are trying to find a
> most practical way of providing a "SL" environment on top of RHEL based
> Linux without having to change the base distribution for the other 19 groups
> in the department. I guess Princeton is not the only University that has and
> want to maintain their own Linux distribution.
>
> Since both PU and SL are based on RHEL, I believe, there is lot more
> similarity than differences in the two distributions. Can we simply setup
> workstations of CMS group using PU linux and then install a few SL RPMs to
> convert them to SL? Will it work for CMS work or there are some fundamental
> changes which make SL very different, and probably incompatible with RHEL?
>

It will be a crapshoot. Depending on how far the two have diverged you
may find that everything just works without any problems. (eg if you
do a yum localinstall sl-release it will start pulling stuff from
scientific linux and apps will work). However some stuff may end up
just crashing without a rhyme or reason (well a good exercise for the
student to track down why they are having problems with symbols and
such).

> Thanks,
>
> Vinod Gupta
> Physics department
> Princeton University



-- 
Stephen J Smoogen.