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Bug 1947892 - dracut uses Recommends for hardlink, kpartx, memstrack, and pigz
Summary: dracut uses Recommends for hardlink, kpartx, memstrack, and pigz
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Classification: Red Hat
Component: dracut
Version: 9.0
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Unspecified
unspecified
unspecified
Target Milestone: beta
: ---
Assignee: Pavel Valena
QA Contact: qe-baseos-daemons
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2021-04-09 13:34 UTC by Jan Pazdziora
Modified: 2022-05-17 16:39 UTC (History)
5 users (show)

Fixed In Version: dracut-055-30.git20220216.el9
Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-05-17 16:04:12 UTC
Type: Bug
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

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System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHBA-2022:4070 0 None None None 2022-05-17 16:04:34 UTC

Description Jan Pazdziora 2021-04-09 13:34:50 UTC 
Description of problem:

RHEL 9 Content Structure and Guidelines state that weak dependencies in BaseOS are allowed, but discouraged.

By using the Recommends weak dependencies especially for packages in @core group (Minimal host installation) or their direct dependencies, the recommended package gets pulled into the installed package set depending on the current configuration of the dnf transaction.

The dracut package Recommends hardlink, kpartx, memstrack, and pigz.

If those packages are needed by dracut for correct operation, Requires should be used.

If hardlink, kpartx, memstrack, and pigz are essential in minimal host installations, they should be listed in the @core group in the comps file, not pulled in as a weak side-effect of having dracut in @core. Note that util-linux (which provides hardlink) is listed in @core already.

If they are listed primarily for convenience, Suggests might be better option. Or just drop the weak dependency completely.

Currently, memstrack is not even available in RHEL 9 composes.

The dracut package itself is installed on minimal host installations via kexec-tools dependency.

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

dracut-051-1.el9.1.x86_64

How reproducible:

Deterministic.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. dnf remove -y kpartx pigz
2. dnf reinstall -y dracut

Actual results:

================================================================================
 Package       Architecture  Version              Repository               Size
================================================================================
Reinstalling:
 dracut        x86_64        051-1.el9.1          beaker-BaseOS           326 k
Installing weak dependencies:
 kpartx        x86_64        0.8.5-4.el9          beaker-BaseOS            50 k
 pigz          x86_64        2.5-1.el9            beaker-AppStream         83 k

Expected results:

Only dracut reinstalled.

Additional info:
Comment 2 David Tardon 2021-07-27 14:27:59 UTC 
hardlink is used by default during image creation -> Requires

pigz is used by default during image creation, with fallback to gzip -> either change to Requires or replace with Requires: gzip; I don't have a firm opinion about this one

memstrack is needed by optional--and quite obscure--module memstrack -> drop

kpartx is needed by modules dmraid and multipath, which are pretty important -> Requires
Comment 3 Pavel Valena 2022-02-16 01:38:53 UTC 
(In reply to David Tardon from comment #2)
> hardlink is used by default during image creation -> Requires

I've found hardlink only in dracut.sh:
’’’
2098     hardlink "$initdir" 2>&1 | dinfo
’’’
This is done by defaut, so I agree.

> 
> pigz is used by default during image creation, with fallback to gzip ->
> either change to Requires or replace with Requires: gzip; I don't have a
> firm opinion about this one

I agree, as I don't see why pigz wouldn't be available, we can assume it's a good default; and set it as such (we can do some conditional requires in case someone would prefer gzip instead; if there are such requests). 

> 
> memstrack is needed by optional--and quite obscure--module memstrack -> drop

I think this is what Suggests is for.

> 
> kpartx is needed by modules dmraid and multipath, which are pretty important
> -> Requires

Yes, this would fail otherwise. Unless we want to thread them as recommends (for any reason), these are Required. 

I'll create a PR. Let me know if you want some adjustments made.
Comment 4 Pavel Valena 2022-02-16 02:11:18 UTC 
Prepared: https://github.com/redhat-plumbers/dracut-rhel9/pull/32
Comment 9 Vojtech Eichler 2022-02-24 17:58:14 UTC 
Moving to VERIFIED based on manual testing.
Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2022-05-17 16:04:12 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 (new packages: dracut), 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/RHBA-2022:4070
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