[CentOS-devel] How to package repo files for Long/Short Term Maintenance versions?

[Niels de Vos]

Hi,

In the Storage SIG we provide different versions of Gluster. The new
upstream release schedule[0] defines two different types of releases:

a. Long Term Maintenance - gets updates for ~12 months
b. Short Term Maintenance - gets updates for ~3 months

The actual time depends a little on how releases are keeping their
schedule (a release every 3 months). There are two Long Term Maintenance
versions active at a time. The Short Term Maintenance releases provide
early access to new features, and are recommended only for early
adopters and users who do not mind upgrading their storage environment
everye 3 months.

This makes for an interesting packaging problem. We would like our users
to be able to install the Gluster packages with a command as simple as
this:

  # yum install centos-release-gluster
  # yum install glusterfs-server

Users should not need to care (or know) about the actual version they
are installing. Currently Gluster 3.8 is provided by the c-r-gluster38
package, with a "Provides: centos-release-gluster = 3.8".

When I add a new c-r-gluster39 package, with a similar "Provides:", I do
not want users to get the 3.9 version by default. Users should get the
Long Term Maintenance versions, and only opt-in on the Short Term
Maintenance version. But, on the other hand, an installed 3.9 version
should be usable for other SIGs that depend on Gluster (like the Virt
SIG for oVirt).

Currently I am thinking to do the "Provides:" like:

  # Users can install centos-release-gluster to get the latest, but we
  # do not want to have 3.9 (Short Term Stable) to be selected when
  # users do install the virtual centos-release-gluster package.
  Provides: centos-release-gluster = 0.3.9
  Conflicts: centos-release-gluster < 0.3.9
  Obsoletes: centos-release-gluster < 0.3.9

Existing (all Long Term Stable) release packages do not have the 0.
prefix:

  # Users can install centos-release-gluster to get the latest
  Provides: centos-release-gluster = 3.8
  Conflicts: centos-release-gluster < 3.8
  Obsoletes: centos-release-gluster < 3.8

We do not want automatic updating/replacing of the release package in
any case (might need manual intervention for major releases). The
current approach works sufficiently well. Except for the potential issue
where other SIGs/projects depend on 'centos-release-gluster >= 3.8'.
This will not work with the 3.9 release package.

I am hoping others can suggest a more elegant solution that addresses
all of these use-cases.

Many thanks!
Niels


0. https://www.gluster.org/community/release-schedule/
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