Does EPEL 9 maintain upgrade path from EPEL 8?

[Miro Hrončok]

Hello,

I have a Fedora package that I've recently also branched for EPEL 9.

The (so called) binary package used to be called "python3-tox", but has been 
renamed to "tox" in Fedora 34. All supported Fedora versions and EPEL 9 have 
the package named as "tox". The package has:

%py_provides    python3-tox
     # Remove this once Fedora 36 goes EOL:
     Obsoletes:      python3-tox < 3.24.4-2

However, the EPEL 8 package is still called python3-tox.

Once I remove the Obsoletes line from Fedora, should I worry about merging that 
commit to the epel9 branch or not? Logic dictates that the Obsolete should 
remain in EPEL 9 forever, but I wonder if there is a policy/rule of thumb. E.g. 
in Fedora, we only support upgrades to Fedora N+2. Do we support upgrades of 
EL+EPEL systems as well and how "far"?

[Neal Gompa]

On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 3:21 PM Miro Hrončok  wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I have a Fedora package that I've recently also branched for EPEL 9.
>
> The (so called) binary package used to be called "python3-tox", but has been
> renamed to "tox" in Fedora 34. All supported Fedora versions and EPEL 9 have
> the package named as "tox". The package has:
>  %py_provides    python3-tox
>  # Remove this once Fedora 36 goes EOL:
>  Obsoletes:      python3-tox < 3.24.4-2
>
> However, the EPEL 8 package is still called python3-tox.
>
> Once I remove the Obsoletes line from Fedora, should I worry about merging that
> commit to the epel9 branch or not? Logic dictates that the Obsolete should
> remain in EPEL 9 forever, but I wonder if there is a policy/rule of thumb. E.g.
> in Fedora, we only support upgrades to Fedora N+2. Do we support upgrades of
> EL+EPEL systems as well and how "far"?

Ideally, we support EL X-1 -> EL X. So EPEL9 *should* upgrade EPEL8
packages, but I don't know if we enforce this.

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On Sat, 19 Feb 2022 at 15:55, Neal Gompa  wrote:
> On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 3:21 PM Miro Hrončok  wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I have a Fedora package that I've recently also branched for EPEL 9.
> >
> > The (so called) binary package used to be called "python3-tox", but has
>
> been
> > renamed to "tox" in Fedora 34. All supported Fedora versions and EPEL 9
>
> have
> > the package named as "tox". The package has:
> >  %py_provides    python3-tox
> >  # Remove this once Fedora 36 goes EOL:
> >  Obsoletes:      python3-tox < 3.24.4-2
> >
> > However, the EPEL 8 package is still called python3-tox.
> >
> > Once I remove the Obsoletes line from Fedora, should I worry about
>
> merging that
> > commit to the epel9 branch or not? Logic dictates that the Obsolete
>
> should
> > remain in EPEL 9 forever, but I wonder if there is a policy/rule of
>
> thumb. E.g.
> > in Fedora, we only support upgrades to Fedora N+2. Do we support
>
> upgrades of
> > EL+EPEL systems as well and how "far"?
>
> Ideally, we support EL X-1 -> EL X. So EPEL9 *should* upgrade EPEL8
> packages, but I don't know if we enforce this.

We have NEVER enforced this before because EL X-1 -> EL X was only
supported under a tight contract for RHEL with special consultant support
(aka you were probably going to just reinstall anyway). For EL7 to EL8, it
sort of works on the EL side but most side repositories don't mainly
because you are jumping from the packaging formats of Fedora 18 to Fedora
29. For EL8 to EL9 it is more manageable since it is from Fedora 29 to
Fedora 34. That said there are a LOT of side effects which aren't really
even tested from Fedora N to Fedora N+1 at the level that most people use
an 'Enterprise' OS versus a 'Hobby' OS. [Those are mostly unfair
characteristics but what most consumers of EL vs Fedora use in their heads.]

Honestly, if someone pays someone a lot of money to pay for engineers to do
this and yes it could be supported. Otherwise we have to use the copious
(aka non-existant) time from Neal and others to somehow make it happen
because 'it should happen'

[Gary Buhrmaster]

On Sat, Feb 19, 2022 at 8:21 PM Miro Hrončok  wrote:
> Once I remove the Obsoletes line from Fedora, should I worry about merging that
> commit to the epel9 branch or not? Logic dictates that the Obsolete should
> remain in EPEL 9 forever, but I wonder if there is a policy/rule of thumb. E.g.
> in Fedora, we only support upgrades to Fedora N+2. Do we support upgrades of
> EL+EPEL systems as well and how "far"?

My own personal rule of thumb is that while I
much prefer spec file cleanliness, leaving the
Obsoletes: in the spec file (essentially) forever
does no harm, and can support less common
situations, since "users do the darndest things".