Episode 57
What is EPEL
July 29th, 2026
51 mins 6 secs
About this Episode
EPEL is one of those repos a lot of us turned on without thinking twice. This episode, Noah and Eric sit down with Carl George, who leads the EPEL team at Red Hat, to explain what EPEL actually is, the golden rule that gives it its reputation, and the changes Carl is proposing for EPEL 11. If you run enterprise Linux, or you have ever typed dnf install epel-release, this one is for you.
Carl is collecting feedback on the EPEL 11 idea right now, so give it a listen and jump into the thread.
Chapters
00:00 Intro
01:12 Meet Carl George
04:25 What is EPEL?
07:50 EPEL's golden rule
09:32 Getting started: CRB + epel-release
10:38 Who governs EPEL
16:08 The road to EPEL 10
21:45 Minor versions and the EPEL team
24:44 The private mirror problem
34:09 Cleaning it up in EPEL 11
40:26 Getting involved & RPM packaging
50:36 Wrap-up
Links from this episode
EPEL 11 discussion thread: https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/looking-back-at-epel-10-and-forward-to-epel-11/197373
EPEL branches documentation: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/branches/
How to request an EPEL package: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/epel-package-request/
What can I do for Fedora?: https://whatcanidoforfedora.org/
Join the Package Maintainers: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/package-maintainers/Joining_the_Package_Maintainers/
RPM packaging lab (RHDP): https://zero.rhdp.net/lab/zt-rhelbu.zt-rpmbuild.prod
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Connect with Eric the IT Guy: https://linktr.ee/itguyeric
Our guest: Carl George, EPEL Team Lead at Red Hat (https://fedoraproject.fireside.fm/guests/carl-george)
Fedora #EPEL #Linux #RHEL #CentOS #EnterpriseLinux #RPM #OpenSource #SysAdmin #PodcastLicensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.