How to contribute RPMs to the CentOS Project

Notice: As of 2006/09/11, his page has been moved to the CentOS Wiki at http://wiki.centos.org/HowToContribute/Packages , and will be kept updated there; This one is still up mainly for archival/reference purposes, and is likely out-of-date.

I've found the answer to that question at last, after searching the FAQ in vain and hanging some hours in the #Centos IRC Channel at Freenode Network; It should be in the official FAQ real-soon-now, but I'm also posting it here to help other would-be contributers.

Summary:

That's it. Thanks z00dax (a.k.a. Karanbir Singh) for his kind help and explanations.

IRC log

Sat Apr  1 09:26:51 EST 2006
irc chat @ irc.freenode.net 6667, channel #centos

<durval> Hello folks! Do anyone here know how I can contribute RPMs to CentOS?
  Seems like contrib is closed and empty...
<Arrfab> durval : take contact with a CentOS devel guy ...
<durval> Arrfab: thanks for the tip. Do you know whether the developers hang
  around here (#centos) or not?
<z00dax> durval, whats up ?
<durval> z00dax: trying to find how upload some contrib RPMS to a CentOS repo...
<durval> z00dax: are you a developer?
<z00dax> durval, yes
<z00dax> durval, you need to make sure the pkgs you are building are not
  already in rpmforge.net ( check svn.rpmforge.net ) and also not included in
  centos.karan.org
<z00dax> durval, if they are not - submit the .spec file along with a url to
  the src.rpm to [email protected] mailing list, it will get collected
  from there, checked and built, moved to dev.centos.org 's repo's
<z00dax> durval, if we get enough interest from there ( we ask for 5 positive
  votes ) it gets moved into the mirror.centos.org repository structure
<durval> z00dax: thanks for the explanation. Just one more question: in
  svn.rpmforge.net I would check via browser the
  http://svn.rpmforge.net/svn/trunk/rpms/ URL, correct? Or do I have to
  install/use Subversion?
<z00dax> durval, just look at with browser :)
<z00dax> durval, we try and work with the rpmforge guys to make sure that we
  dont overlap work...
<durval> z00dax: very nice! also, at http://centos.karan.org/, is it enough to use
  the Quicksearch box or should I search deeper?
<z00dax> durval, http://centos.karan.org/el4/extras/stable/i386/SRPMS/ look
  through that tree
<z00dax> durval, and http://centos.karan.org/el4/misc/stable/i386/SRPMS/
<durval> z00dax: Ah! Thank you very much for your help. I will collect that info and
  post it somewhere for other willing-to-contribute folks to find...
<z00dax> durval, its in the faq's on the website
<durval> z00dax: really? But I've looked for it high and low, and all I found was
  http://centos.org/modules/smartfaq/faq.php?faqid=12, which doesn't really
  explain anything. Do you mind to tell me where (so I can refer it to others)?
<z00dax> durval, if its not there, I'll add it in a bit
<durval> z00dax: nice! thanks again, and I will be going now to post some contribs.
  Bye!
==Eof==