blog: add Copr post

Signed-off-by: Matej Focko <me@mfocko.xyz>

blog/2023-08-02-copr.md

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+---
+title: How can Copr help with broken dependencies
+description: Copr comes to save you when maintainer doesn't care.
+date: 2023-08-02
+authors: mf
+tags:
+- 🏭
+- red-hat
+- copr
+- admin
+- vps
+---
+
+When you decide to run Fedora on your VPS, you might get screwed over by using
+random repositories…
+
+<!--truncate-->
+
+When I “reserved” my VPS[^1] back in June '20, I slapped Fedora on it without
+thinking. I bet 99% of people would say that I'm crazy for doing such thing[^2],
+**BUT** I've been using Fedora on my PCs for some time already and it felt very
+stable and natural to just use, even for VPS.
+
+One of the first things I've done was setting up a mail server. You may guess
+what's the fun part about having a mail server… Yes, it's all the spam you
+receive and only then you realize how much “crap” gets filtered on free mail
+services. To battle this problem I chose to use
+[rspamd](https://github.com/rspamd/rspamd) that had CentOS support, but someone
+had a [Copr](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/) repository that I used to
+install it.
+
+## How does Copr repositories work?
+
+If you have ever used Ubuntu, you might be familiar with the concept since it is
+very close to [PPAs](https://help.ubuntu.com/community/PPA).
+
+tl;dr of the whole process consists of
+1. enabling the Copr repository, and
+2. installing the desired package.
+
+So in shell you would do
+```
+# dnf copr enable ‹copr-repository›
+# dnf install ‹package-from-the-repository›
+```
+
+And… that's it! Nothing else needed! Simple, right? And literally same process
+as you would do for the PPA.
+
+:::tip AUR
+
+On the other hand, if you are familiar with the archLinux, you definitely know
+AUR and what it can do for you. Copr repository is pretty similar, but the
+packages are prebuilt in Copr and Copr repositories can carry the required
+dependencies for said packages, which simplifies the distribution, and can even
+help with installing singular packages (when you just need the dependency, not
+everything).
+
+:::
+
+## My issue
+
+Now you might wonder how would I use it on my VPS. It's rather simple, once in
+6 months a new Fedora release comes out. And you need to upgrade to newer
+release… You don't need to do it right away and for such setup it probably isn't
+even recommended.
+
+:::tip
+
+Fedora releases are supported for a year, i.e. they live 6 months till the next
+release and then another 6 months till another release.
+
+Some people prefer to run one version “behind”. If you ever decide to run it on
+your home server or in a similar setup, it might be a pretty good idea to
+follow. I'm using the “latest greatest”, cause why not :smile:
+
+One way or another, you still need to bump the release every six months, unless
+you'd bump 2 releases at once every year, which would be a decision, since, at
+least I, cannot see any benefits in it… You don't go for “stability”, cause once
+a year you switch to the latest release and then, before you bump, you use one
+year old software, so you're not even using the latest.
+
+:::
+
+Fast-forward 2 years in the future, new Fedora release came out (October '22)
+and I was doing an upgrade. Dependencies of the rspamd have been updated and
+rspamd builds in Copr have failed and no one fixed it. Cool, so now I can
+upgrade, but can either ignore the dependencies or uninstall the rspamd…
+
+## How can Copr help?
+
+I have managed to find
+[specfile](https://github.com/rspamd/rspamd/blob/master/rpm/rspamd.spec) for the
+rspamd package that they use for CentOS. There were some files apart from the
+specfile, so I had to make an SRPM locally and then… I just uploaded the SRPM
+to the Copr to
+[build](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/mfocko/rspamd/build/5046567/)
+an RPM.
+
+I have switched the previous Copr repository for rspamd with my own and happily
+proceeded with the upgrade.
+
+## Conclusion
+
+Copr is heavily used for testing builds on the upstream with
+[Packit](https://packit.dev). However, as you can see, it is possible to use it
+**very well** for packaging your own stuff and avoiding issues (such as the one
+I have described above), if need be.
+
+[^1]: [vpsFree.cz](https://vpsfree.cz)
+[^2]: Even though I've been running archLinux on some Raspberry Pi's and also
+      on one of my “home servers”, before getting the VPS. You could say I like
+      to live on the edge…