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Bug 1964906

Summary:	Rebase rpm to 4.16.x (or backport rpmver logic from PR#1221), please?
Product:	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8	Reporter:	Luca BRUNO <lucab>
Component:	rpm	Assignee:	Packaging Maintenance Team <packaging-team-maint>
Status:	CLOSED WONTFIX	QA Contact:	swm-qe
Severity:	medium	Docs Contact:
Priority:	unspecified
Version:	8.5	CC:	jlebon, pmatilai
Target Milestone:	beta	Flags:	pm-rhel: mirror+
Target Release:	---
Hardware:	Unspecified
OS:	Unspecified
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version:		Doc Type:	If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:		Story Points:	---
Clone Of:		Environment:
Last Closed:	2021-09-14 11:46:42 UTC	Type:	Bug
Regression:	---	Mount Type:	---
Documentation:	---	CRM:
Verified Versions:		Category:	---
oVirt Team:	---	RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team:	---	Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Description Luca BRUNO 2021-05-26 10:10:16 UTC

Hi,
Specifically for the upcoming RHEL 8.5, I'd like to ask whether it is possible to have rpm rebased on an upstream version >= 4.16.0?

In particular, rpm-ostree started to benefit from the new logic in 'rpmver.h' introduced in https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1221.
As such it would be helpful to have those APIs available in RHEL 8.5 by the time it gets to GA.

If a rebase is not possible/planned, can the referenced PR be considered for a backport maybe? 

Thanks in advance!

Comment 1 Panu Matilainen 2021-06-01 08:29:31 UTC

Rebasing to a new major version of rpm is out of the question (in rpm versions, the first number denotes the file format and the second is the major version within that).

The introduction of rpmver.h API involves all manner of refactoring such as moving symbols across libraries which is not acceptable within a released RHEL version either. What specifically does rpm-ostree use from that? I fail to see any references to the new API in rpm-ostree codebase.

Comment 2 Luca BRUNO 2021-06-01 11:53:29 UTC

Thanks for the feedback. rpm-ostree uses[0] `rpmverCmp` (and related ancillary types).
It sounds like neither a rebase nor a full backport are indeed feasible.

Scoping this a bit more, I think the relevant parts are just the new bits in this rpmio commit[1] (plus dependency on previous ones in the PR).
If it is too messy to retrofit that in rpm, we are alternatively looking into adding some back-compatibility bits in rpm-ostree.

[0] https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/blob/v2021.5/src/lib/rpmostree-package.c#L151
[1] https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1221/commits/04b3ff2550594af403ebdf14ac529d51c68160f9

Comment 3 Panu Matilainen 2021-09-14 11:46:42 UTC

> Scoping this a bit more, I think the relevant parts are just the new bits in this rpmio commit[1] (plus dependency on previous ones in the PR).

We don't generally backport API additions or other new features because they tend to come with too many strings attached. Like here, the patch is on the large side already, but it's the dependencies that are the real killer - we can't move symbols between libraries.

Generally speaking, rpm is best considered frozen in any RHEL release, and plan ahead accordingly wrt compatibility.