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Bug 1731109 - improve man page & help for registering with --force option
Summary: improve man page & help for registering with --force option
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Classification: Red Hat
Component: subscription-manager
Version: 7.8
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
medium
low
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: candlepin-bugs
QA Contact: Red Hat subscription-manager QE Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2019-07-18 10:14 UTC by Stephen Wadeley
Modified: 2021-10-01 07:27 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-10-01 07:27:08 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
pm-rhel: mirror+

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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Github candlepin subscription-manager pull 2541 0 None closed 1731109: improve man page & help for registering with --force option 2021-05-17 13:58:58 UTC

Description Stephen Wadeley 2019-07-18 10:14:55 UTC 
Description of problem:

The explanation of --force flag is a little ambiguous & could be improved. 
Something like 'attempt to register the system even if it already has a local identity certificate' would be better. [1]

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):

 ~]# rpm -q subscription-manager
subscription-manager-1.21.10-3.el7_6.x86_64

How reproducible:

[root@dell-r330-12 
[root@dell-r330-12 ~]# subscription-manager register --help | grep version
  --release=RELEASE     set a release version

[root@dell-r330-12 


Steps to Reproduce:
1. ~]# subscription-manager register --help | grep force
  --force               register the system even if it is already registered
2. ~]# man subscription-manager

Actual results:

from help:

  --force               register the system even if it is already registered

from man page:

     --force
              Registers the system even if it is already registered. Normally, any register operations will fail if the system is already registered. With
              --force,  the  existing system entry is unregistered first, all of its subscriptions are returned to the pool, and then the system is regis‐
              tered as a new entry.



Expected results:

from help:

  --force       Attempts to register the system even if it already has a local identity certificate

from man page:

       --force
              Attempts to register the system even if it already has a local identity certificate. Normally, any register operations will fail if the system is already registered. With
              --force, the existing system entry is unregistered first, all of its subscriptions are returned to the pool, and then the system is registered as a new entry.



Additional info:

[1] https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1717006#c14
Comment 2 John Sefler 2019-07-19 13:42:51 UTC 
Here are my suggestions for an improved help and man page description for the --force option...


from help:

  --force     include an implicit attempt to unregister before registering a new system identity



from man page:

  --force
              Normally, register operations will fail if the system is already registered.  With --force, the existing system identity
              is unregistered first, all of its attached subscriptions are returned to their pools, and then the system is registered with a new
              identity.   Beware that the --force option does not guarantee a successful registration.  For example, if
              the registration with --force includes a different --serverurl than was used for the original registration, the 
              implicit call to unregister from the original entitlement server will fail with invalid credentials and the registration
              with force will be aborted.  In this case, the user should explicity unregister from the original entitlement server.  If unregistering is
              not possible, then running subscription-manager clean will effectively abandon the original registration identity and entitlements.  Once cleaned,
              registering a new system identity should succeed with or without force.
Comment 5 RHEL Program Management 2021-03-15 07:37:39 UTC 
After evaluating this issue, there are no plans to address it further or fix it in an upcoming release.  Therefore, it is being closed.  If plans change such that this issue will be fixed in an upcoming release, then the bug can be reopened.
Comment 11 RHEL Program Management 2021-10-01 07:27:08 UTC 
After evaluating this issue, there are no plans to address it further or fix it in an upcoming release.  Therefore, it is being closed.  If plans change such that this issue will be fixed in an upcoming release, then the bug can be reopened.
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