Fedora is a huge project that includes tens of thousands of packaged software. Sometimes you may notice an upstream has released an update that is not yet in the stable Fedora repositories, and in a lot of cases this updated version will be on its way for inclusion in Fedora. There are several places you can check to see if an updated version of the package is on the way for Fedora.
Check the Fedora Updates system (Bodhi)
Bodhi is Fedora’s updates system for tracking pending updates. You can check the Bodhi page for the package you are interested in and check if there are any pending updates in the “Testing” status. For example at the time of writing, the Bodhi page (https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/?packages=powerline) for Powerline shows that there is an update for Fedora 22 in the works:
Because a newer version of this package is in updates-testing, you can easily install it from the updates-testing repo with:
sudo dnf install lyx --enablerepo=updates-testing
Or you can wait for it to get out of the testing phase. (And if you do try it, you can help others by adding a + or – comment to the
update in Bodhi.)
Checking Bugzilla for answers
If you have checked Bodhi, and no update is pending, take a look in bugzilla for bugs like this one: <https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1060470> — maybe there’s a reason why there is not an update in the works yet. These types of “new upstream is available” bugs are going have also become easier for a Package Maintainer to track with the new Upstream Monitoring system launched earlier in the year. However, if there is a newer upstream version available, but not in Fedora, filing a bug of this type against the package you are interested in is a good way to inform the maintainer that a new version is available upstream.
Check Koji, our build system
Fedora’s updates policy asks for maintainers to be cautious about putting big updates which change the UI or significantly alter functionality into stable releases, so it may be that the newer package is destined only for the next Fedora release.
So check the koji builds <http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=17410> for the most recent version of Fedora + 1 and see if this version is newer than what you have.
Contact the Package Maintainers
Finally, you can contact the package maintainers and see what their plans are. (Offers of help are often welcome if you are technically inclined and familiar with the package in question — even if you’re not a packager, you can test.)
You can find the maintainers in the package db web app, like <https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/package/powerline/>.
Sudhir Khanger
Does Bodhi allow you to subscribe to karma, comments, or change in repo status of an update? Say I want to follow Plams 5.4 update https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2015-15687
Matthew Miller
I believe that if you leave feedback, you’ll get updates. But… actually, I’m not sure how it works in the new version. So, good question. 🙂 You can subscribe to a big array of different Fedora notifications at https://apps.fedoraproject.org/notifications, and that could include for example all update activity around “plasma*” — but that might be more than you want.
Luke Macken
It behaves the same as the previous version of Bodhi. If you leave feedback on an update, you’ll continue to get email notifications about it.
Matthew Miller
Cool, thanks Luke — that’s what I thought!
Jep
I still miss an opportunity to suggest new packages. For example the Atom Editor, Haxe and Rust should be in the Fedora repos in the future!
Matthew Miller
Well, there is a wishlist at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Package_maintainers_wishlist. But a general rule of any volunteer project is that you can suggest all you want, but unless someone is inspired to do it, nothing will make them.
For the specific packages you mention, some of the methods above will apply. For example, Rust is in progress but a lot of work:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=915043
Atom Editor is based around Chromium, and for that, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Chromium.
I don’t know about Haxe, though.
bhy
Hello, it’s a little confusing that the text and the image mentions Powerline as an example, yet the command is for installing LyX. Other than that, thank you for the article.:)
Jim
Good to know! I’m wondering why some packages don’t show up in the search, like for example Git and Lynx?
Matthew Miller
Depends which search, but note that many things are case-sensitive. Try
and
.
Jim
HI Matthew,
Those two, along with Firefox didn’t show up, even when they are typed in lower case.
Devin Henderson
I like to use
.
~]$ bodhi -L kernel
f21-updates-pending kernel-4.1.6-100.fc21
f21-updates-testing kernel-4.1.7-100.fc21
f21-updates kernel-4.1.6-100.fc21
f21-updates-testing-pending kernel-4.1.7-100.fc21
f21-updates-candidate kernel-4.1.6-100.fc21
f21-override kernel-4.1.6-100.fc21
f22-updates-testing kernel-4.1.7-200.fc22
f22-updates kernel-4.1.6-201.fc22
f22-updates-pending kernel-4.1.6-201.fc22
f22-updates-candidate kernel-4.1.6-201.fc22
f22-override kernel-4.1.6-201.fc22
f22-updates-testing-pending kernel-4.1.7-200.fc22
f23-override kernel-4.2.0-300.fc23
f23-updates kernel-4.2.0-300.fc23
f23-updates-pending kernel-4.2.0-300.fc23
f23-updates-testing kernel-4.2.0-300.fc23
f23-updates-candidate kernel-4.2.0-0.rc8.git3.1.fc23
f23-updates-testing-pending kernel-4.2.0-300.fc23
sam
Your kernel headers for kernel 4.1.7-200.fc22.x86_64+debug cannot be found at
/lib/modules/4.1.7-200.fc22.x86_64+debug/build or /lib/modules/4.1.7-200.fc22.x86_64+debug/source.
help