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Bug 613593 - Rebase libguestfs in RHEL 6.1
Summary: Rebase libguestfs in RHEL 6.1
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED ERRATA
Alias: None
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Classification: Red Hat
Component: libguestfs
Version: 6.1
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
low
medium
Target Milestone: rc
: ---
Assignee: Richard W.M. Jones
QA Contact: Virtualization Bugs
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On: 628849
Blocks: 600144 612308 615223 627832 627833 627835 633174 634813 635017 639601 639602 641494 669839 669840 670299 689882
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2010-07-12 11:24 UTC by Richard W.M. Jones
Modified: 2018-11-14 18:58 UTC (History)
15 users (show)

Fixed In Version: libguestfs-1.7.17-10.el6
Doc Type: Rebase: Bug Fixes and Enhancements
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2011-05-19 11:45:01 UTC
Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:

Attachments (Terms of Use)


Links
System ID Private Priority Status Summary Last Updated
Red Hat Product Errata RHSA-2011:0586 0 normal SHIPPED_LIVE Low: libguestfs security, bug fix, and enhancement update 2011-05-19 11:44:03 UTC

Description Richard W.M. Jones 2010-07-12 11:24:19 UTC 
Description of problem:

The version of libguestfs that we are shipping in RHEL 6.0 will be
1.2.7 + a handful of backported bug fixes and features to support
virt-v2v.

This bug is here to make the case that we should rebase libguestfs
in RHEL 6.1 to either:
 >= 1.2.10 (along the same 1.2 stable branch), or:
 >= 1.4.1 (along the new 1.4 stable branch)

Background reading:

Summary of libguestfs version numbers in all Fedora branches:
http://rwmj.wordpress.com/2010/07/12/libguestfs-versions/

Explanation of libguestfs version numbering:
http://libguestfs.org/guestfs.3.html#libguestfs_version_numbers

libguestfs 1.4.0 release notes:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2010-July/msg00033.html

Firstly, a rebase to >= 1.2.10 isn't really a "rebase" at all.  We only
pull in bug fixes along the stable branches, so upgrading to this
version just pulls in bug fixes, some of which we are already carrying
as separate patches in the RHEL 6.0 SRPM.  This is the completely
safe option.

However a rebase to >= 1.4.1 should also be considered.  This is
the latest stable branch.  It has significant new features, but retains
source and binary (ABI) compatibility with existing programs.
Amongst the important new features for our users:

 - virt-resize contains important fixes for Windows guests
    which would be difficult to backport
 - virt-resize contains useful extra capabilities for Linux guests
 - the aug_clear API which we need in virt-v2v and currently
    have to backport is included by default
 - the FUSE module supports write mode
 - guestfish has many usability enhancements
 - a lot of more invasive bug fixes which were too much to
    backport into 1.2 upstream are included in 1.4, and moving
    to 1.4 directly would avoid us having to do these complex
    backports just for RHEL.

Fedora 13 users are the test bed for the 1.4 branch.

The downsides as I see them:

 - QA would have to be extended to cover the new features
 - obviously there is some risk of regression with any big rebase
 - virt-v2v is currently QA'd against 1.2
Comment 3 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-08-31 08:06:09 UTC 
I am using Fedora 13 as a testbed for a possible RHEL 6.1 package.
This package is based on stable branch 1.4, with significant features
backported from the development branch.  We are using git to
manage the patches.

Latest Fedora package, search for 'fc13' here:
https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/search/libguestfs

Package spec file and patches:
http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/gitweb/?p=libguestfs.git;a=tree;h=refs/heads/f13/master;hb=refs/heads/f13/master

The base version and backports are encoded in the version
number:

f13$ guestfish --version
guestfish 1.4.3+fastdf+luks+islv+inspection+ext2+serial+core

Amongst the significant enhancements over 1.2.7:

- big performance improvements
- use of virtio-serial instead of SLIRP
- all APIs required by virt-v2v are included or backported
- all bugfixes required by virt-v2v similarly
- virt-resize supports Windows guests
- FUSE module works in write mode
- other features are covered in the 1.4.0 release notes
  https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2010-July/msg00033.html
Comment 14 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-10-16 14:00:36 UTC 
We would like to rebase to 1.6.  This includes all the
1.4 fixes, so the previous testing is still valid.

List of upstream feature and bug fix work is here:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&field0-0-0=cf_devel_whiteboard&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=MODIFIED&bug_status=ON_DEV&bug_status=ON_QA&bug_status=VERIFIED&bug_status=FAILS_QA&bug_status=RELEASE_PENDING&bug_status=POST&bug_status=PASSES_QA&type0-0-0=anywords&value0-0-0=1.6&component=libguestfs&product=Virtualization%20Tools&classification=Other
Comment 17 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-11-18 18:10:55 UTC 
There are some test packages here:
http://people.redhat.com/~rjones/rhel6.1-libguestfs-preview/

Announcement:
https://www.redhat.com/archives/libguestfs/2010-November/msg00059.html
Comment 18 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-11-19 08:58:30 UTC 
https://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/taskinfo?taskID=2903356
Comment 19 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-11-26 09:37:12 UTC 
Setting back to ASSIGNED.

There are several problems with the packages from
comment 17 (however, *please* still test those):

1. Should package libguestfs-winsupport

2. Should require febootstrap 2.11
   https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=628849#c5

3. Need to backport the C tools from upstream for
   RHEV-H and change the packaging slightly so that
   nothing we need for RHEV-H will require perl.
Comment 20 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-11-30 18:41:34 UTC 
https://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/buildinfo?buildID=150467

(In reply to comment #19)
> 1. Should package libguestfs-winsupport

Turns out this is not required.  You can continue to use the
current libguestfs-winsupport[a] package with this newer
libguestfs.

[a] https://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/buildinfo?buildID=136679

> 2. Should require febootstrap 2.11
>    https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=628849#c5

Done:
https://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/buildinfo?buildID=150384

> 3. Need to backport the C tools from upstream for
>    RHEV-H and change the packaging slightly so that
>    nothing we need for RHEV-H will require perl.

Done.  The new subpackage is called libguestfs-tools-c.

If you install libguestfs-tools (Perl tools) it will pull
in libguestfs-tools-c as well.

If you install libguestfs-tools-c, you will just get the
C tools and there should be no Perl dependency at all.
Comment 21 Richard W.M. Jones 2010-12-20 22:10:44 UTC 
Further updates, see changelog:

http://brewweb.devel.redhat.com/brew/taskinfo?taskID=2990591
Comment 28 errata-xmlrpc 2011-05-19 11:45:01 UTC 
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-0586.html
Comment 29 errata-xmlrpc 2011-05-19 13:16:38 UTC 
An advisory has been issued which should help the problem
described in this bug report. This report is therefore being
closed with a resolution of ERRATA. For more information
on therefore solution and/or where to find the updated files,
please follow the link below. You may reopen this bug report
if the solution does not work for you.

http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2011-0586.html
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