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Bug 1883456 - There should be a release file in /etc which contains the pre-GA version (e.g. RC-5)
Summary: There should be a release file in /etc which contains the pre-GA version (e.g...
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: redhat-release
Version: 8.0
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
medium
Target Milestone: rc
: 8.0
Assignee: Release Engineering Bug Triage
QA Contact: Release Test Team
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2020-09-29 09:17 UTC by Bernd Finger
Modified: 2020-11-10 18:15 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2020-10-12 07:43:00 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

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Description Bernd Finger 2020-09-29 09:17:28 UTC 
Description of problem:
When installing a pre-GA version of RHEL from the partner FTP server, it is not possible after booting to identify that beta, snapshot, or RC version.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
any pre-GA release of RHEL

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install RHEL using an ISO image from the partner FTP server.
2. After booting, log in to the server and try to find out from which beta, snapshot, or RC image this system had been created.

Actual results:
It is not possible to find out from which beta, snapshot, or RC image this system had been created.

Expected results:
For RHEL beta, snapshot, and RC, there should be a release file similar to /etc/redhat-release (e.g. /etc/redhat-release-pre-ga) which shows from which pre-GA release image this system had been created. Sample content:
RHEL-7.9-RC-5

Additional info:
This would make it easy to identify on a system (other than looking up the kernel version which might not even change between release candidates) which pre-GA RHEL version is running on the server. Using this information, it would be possible to automatically get the correct repo files from the partner FTP server.
Comment 2 Petr Zatko 2020-10-08 08:40:55 UTC 
Hello Bernd,

if I understand that correctly you want to know what build you have installed from within your installed system, since the partner ftp repos are properly named.
The request makes sense to me, but I have issue with the approach. Using the proposed way redhat-release package would have to be rebuilt for every respin.
That may not sound like much but it would raise some difficulties. And the main issue is that when release candidate compose passes all testing, we don't want to any changes to the compose and this way, redhat-release would have to be rebuilt to not specify the compose as 'pre-GA' anymore, as redhat-release marks RC composes as GA.

I believe that the request should be handled a different way, probably outside of redhat-release package.

Josh, could you please take a look at the bug and provide some insight?
Comment 3 Josh Boyer 2020-10-08 12:52:18 UTC 
Petr is correct.  Every RC is intended to be *the* GA and is built as such.  The fact that there were 5 RCs for 7.9 is an indication of late blockers that required respins, but the intention every single time is to ship that.  We cannot add files to the ISOs that identify it as unreleased because that in and of itself would require a respin of installation media.

We do actually indicate this in /etc/redhat-release and /etc/os-release for builds prior to RC:

[jwboyer@zod ~]$ cat /etc/redhat-release 
Red Hat Enterprise Linux release 8.4 Beta (Ootpa)
[jwboyer@zod ~]$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
VERSION="8.4 (Ootpa)"
ID="rhel"
ID_LIKE="fedora"
VERSION_ID="8.4"
PLATFORM_ID="platform:el8"
PRETTY_NAME="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.4 Beta (Ootpa)"
ANSI_COLOR="0;31"
CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.4:beta"
HOME_URL="https://www.redhat.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.redhat.com/"

REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8"
REDHAT_BUGZILLA_PRODUCT_VERSION=8.4
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT="Red Hat Enterprise Linux"
REDHAT_SUPPORT_PRODUCT_VERSION="8.4 Beta"
[jwboyer@zod ~]$
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