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Bug 1926261 - dnf should not allow an installonly_limit less than 2
Summary: dnf should not allow an installonly_limit less than 2
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Classification: Red Hat
Component: dnf
Version: 8.3
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
high
high
Target Milestone: rc
: 8.0
Assignee: Marek Blaha
QA Contact: Jan Blazek
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On: 1951409 1951411
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2021-02-08 14:16 UTC by jcastran
Modified: 2024-03-25 18:08 UTC (History)
4 users (show)

Fixed In Version: dnf-4.7.0-1.el8
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2021-11-09 19:52:36 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Knowledge Base (Solution) 5784861 0 None None None 2021-02-08 14:16:13 UTC
Red Hat Product Errata RHSA-2021:4464 0 None None None 2021-11-09 19:53:12 UTC

Description jcastran 2021-02-08 14:16:14 UTC 
Description of problem:
When the installonly_limit is set to 1, dnf fails to update the kernel and does not clearly indicate why. DNF should not allow for an installonly_limit of 1

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
dnf-4.2.23-4.el8.noarch

How reproducible:
Everytime

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have a kernel update available or install a lower kernel
2. # yum update kernel --setopt=installonly_limit=1
3.

Actual results:
Error:
 Problem: The operation would result in removing the following protected packages: kernel-core
(try to add '--skip-broken' to skip uninstallable packages or '--nobest' to use not only best candidate packages)


Expected results:
yum/dnf prevents the installonly_limit being set less than 2. 


Additional info:
RHEL 7 implemented this in 2008

https://github.com/rpm-software-management/yum/commit/b31133149f5b25e0fb01d6bfa07f4d6f699c9142

When this is set on RHEL 7, yum stops you.

Options error: Error parsing "installonly_limit = '1'": out of range integer value
Comment 1 Marek Blaha 2021-02-16 08:54:24 UTC 
According to `man dnf.conf` (see https://dnf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/conf_ref.html#installonly-limit-label for a html version) values 0 or 1 in installonly_limit configuration option means that unlimited number of installonly packages is being kept. Apparently, due to a bug in dnf only value 0 is accepted as such.
Is fixing the dnf to behave according the documentation acceptable solution? I.e. if installonly_limit is 1, no error is raised and dnf allows any number of kernels installed.
Comment 2 Marek Blaha 2021-02-17 09:09:49 UTC 
The other option of fixing it is what you actually proposed - change the documentation that 1 is not allowed value and raise similar error as RHEL 7 did.
Comment 3 jcastran 2021-02-17 12:58:29 UTC 
My vote is to change the documentation and not allow a value of 1. 

This would prevent cases where it was assumed 1 meant only 1 kernel is allowed and they inevitably run out of space in /boot. Better to allow 0 to be unlimited, but make 1 output a message telling them they can't do that.
Comment 5 Marek Blaha 2021-03-05 15:59:03 UTC 
PR that disallows installonly_limit=1 configuration option - https://github.com/rpm-software-management/libdnf/pull/1155
PR that changes documentation accordingly and prints the warning to the user - https://github.com/rpm-software-management/dnf/pull/1740
Comment 6 Marek Blaha 2021-03-05 16:10:40 UTC 
PR with test: https://github.com/rpm-software-management/ci-dnf-stack/pull/970
Comment 16 errata-xmlrpc 2021-11-09 19:52:36 UTC 
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (Moderate: dnf security and bug fix update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2021:4464
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