Re: Proposing keeping multiple versions of the same package in the updates repo

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On Tue, Mar 24, 2020 at 12:12:29AM -0000, Michel Alexandre Salim wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We run a diverse fleet of Linux laptops and desktops (at Facebook), and sometimes there are regressions that affect some of our fleet but not others.
> 
> To pick the latest example:
> - pulseaudio 1.3.99.1 (both -1 and -2) breaks Bluetooth support on a Dell XPS 15: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1814556
> - but it fixes HDA audio input on ThinkPad T490s and X1 Carbon: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2020-c3e19f5098
> 
> We've had similar issues with kernel regressions (e.g. 5.4 kernels had issues with Intel GPUs, and on ThinkPads with Nvidia GPUs).
> 
> (Ideally we catch all this before they land -- over the medium term I'm trying to find a way to encourage our users to help test updates)
> 
> Would it be possible to keep 2 or 3 versions of the same package in the updates repo, so we can easily keep some of our fleet at a previous version known to work on that particular hardware? And is there a process for proposing this (e.g. file a ticket on Pagure)?
> 
> Our workaround right now is to check in the older versions in our internal repo.

So I tilted at this windmill for a while (although from the perspective
of rawhide, not updates). 

The things that come up: 

* It's actually really hard to know what the last 2-3 versions of a
package are. koji has no concept of versions, it just has tags. In an
ideal world they would be in a nice order in the tag, but there's lots
of things that cause this to not be the case. ie, you can get say the
last 3 kernels tagged into a tag, but those are always the last 3
version wise. At one point this was very difficult for pungi to do, but
might be easier now. 

* Keeping 2-3 more packages increases space a great deal. Both updates
space and repodata space. 

* Keeping 2-3 more packages increases the threat surface about insecure
updates. ie, now you could trick someone into downgrading or installing
something insecure from the base repo, with this you have 2-3x the
chance with all the versions in the updates repo. 

Anyhow, I guess this would be something to propose to FESCo (althought
they might want discussion on devel list first). 

kevin

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