Bug 2209404

Summary:	Prepare for DNF 5, don't depend on `dnf`
Product:	[Fedora] Fedora	Reporter:	Evan Goode <egoode>
Component:	policycoreutils	Assignee:	Petr Lautrbach <plautrba>
Status:	CLOSED ERRATA	QA Contact:	Fedora Extras Quality Assurance <extras-qa>
Severity:	high	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	rawhide	CC:	dwalsh, lvrabec, mmalik, plautrba, vmojzis
Target Milestone:	---
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:	policycoreutils-3.5-7.fc39	Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
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Last Closed:	2023-08-01 13:00:05 UTC	Type:	---
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oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:
Bug Blocks:	2166026

Description Evan Goode 2023-05-23 19:23:04 UTC

(I'm filing issues with all the packages that currently depend on `dnf`.)

DNF 5 is a new package manager that will replace DNF 4 in Fedora 39+:  Starting in Fedora 39, the `dnf` command will be provided by the `dnf5` package rather than the `dnf` package, and `dnf5` will obsolete `dnf`. Since policycoreutils currently depends on DNF 4, it should choose one of the following strategies to avoid breaking the Fedora upgrade:

- Add support for DNF 5, and depend on the `dnf5` package in Fedora 39+ instead of `dnf`. Builds of DNF 5 are available in this COPR repository: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/rpmsoftwaremanagement/dnf5-unstable/, and documentation is available here: https://dnf5.readthedocs.io/en/latest/.
- Alternatively, or in the meantime, change the policycoreutils package to depend on `python3-dnf` instead of `dnf`, and call the `dnf-3` binary instead of `dnf`. The old DNF 4 command will still be available in the distribution, but only as `dnf-3` (the binary is called `dnf-3`  rather than `dnf4` for historical reasons; it is the "Python 3 version" of DNF). The first option is preferred to this one; it is not recommended to modify installed software using both DNF 4 and DNF 5 on the same system.
- Or, if this package is no longer being maintained, consider removing it from Fedora.

At some point, this project should adopt DNF 5, but the immediate issue is removing the dependency on `dnf`. We are planning to replace DNF with DNF5 in Fedora Rawhide very soon, by 2023-06-01, and the policycoreutils package will break as long as it still depends on the `dnf` package.

For more information about the switch to DNF 5, see https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ReplaceDnfWithDnf5.


Reproducible: Always

Comment 1 Petr Lautrbach 2023-08-01 09:41:05 UTC

https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/policycoreutils/pull-request/39

Comment 2 Fedora Update System 2023-08-01 11:01:16 UTC

FEDORA-2023-7f8f4307d0 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 39. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2023-7f8f4307d0

Comment 3 Fedora Update System 2023-08-01 13:00:05 UTC

FEDORA-2023-7f8f4307d0 has been pushed to the Fedora 39 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.

Comment 4 Evan Goode 2023-08-16 18:26:47 UTC

Hi, as you may be aware, the switch to DNF 5 has been postponed, likely to Fedora 41. In Fedora 39, the `dnf` command will be provided by the `dnf` package, and DNF 5 will not be installed by default.

No action is needed here, this change to depend on python3-dnf is still fine.

FYI, in the meantime, we have set up a testing [COPR repository](https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/rpmsoftwaremanagement/dnf5-testing/) that provides a version of DNF 5 that obsoletes DNF 4. It can be used to test software in an environment similar to the future release of Fedora (whichever that will be) when DNF 5 replaces DNF 4:

```
sudo dnf-3 copr enable rpmsoftwaremanagement/dnf5-testing
```

Enabling the COPR and upgrading your system should replace DNF 4 (the `dnf` package) with DNF 5 (`dnf5`), and `/usr/bin/dnf` will be DNF 5.