On Tue, 2026-07-07 at 11:11 +0100, Richard W.M. Jones wrote:
> The trouble with this is that another packager might be unresponsive
> or be unable to fix or simple refuses to fix their package
> (eg. because of your SONAME update) and now you can't release that to
> anyone in a stable branch. Even if your package is more core than the
> other person's blocking package.
Well, I see a few issues with that.
One, by policy, soname updates are rarely meant to happen on stable
releases at all. See the policy text I cited: "ABI changes in general
are very strongly discouraged, they force larger update sets on users
and they make life difficult for third-party packagers."
Two, if you *are* for some reason absolutely forced to make an ABI
change in a stable release, I think you absolutely should be on the
hook for making sure all dependencies are fixed. Even if one of their
packagers is non-responsive, you can send a pull request and ask a
proven packager to merge it after a sufficient period of inactivity. I
don't think it's practical at present to expect this for Branched or
Rawhide, which is why I'm not proposing it for those branches, but I
think it is reasonable in the *exceptional* and *unusual* case of ABI
changes in stable releases.
Three, if for some reason it is absolutely necessary to *both* change
an ABI *and* break some dependents of it in a stable release, I think
it is not particularly onerous to require you to file a waiver. The
filing of the waiver effectively acts as a record of the fact that you
were aware of your update breaking dependent packages and that you are
willing to defend this as being in some way correct or necessary.
--
Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
Fedora QA
Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @adamw@fosstodon.org
https://www.happyassassin.net
[ed. note: I do not understand why we sometimes get the AI summary in
https://meetbot-raw.fedoraproject.org/teams/quality/ but sometimes we
don't]
=====================================
# #meeting:fedoraproject.org: Quality
=====================================
Meeting started by @adamwill:fedora.im at 2026-07-06 15:00:49
Meeting summary
---------------
* TOPIC: Roll Call (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:00:52)
* TOPIC: Previous meeting follow-up (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:06:59)
* INFO: "someone to [send out the F45 call for test days](https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/tickets/issues/908)" - this was done by Christopher Boni, thank you! (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:07:40)
* TOPIC: Fedora 45 status (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:11:35)
* INFO: console initial-setup is [still broken](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2484542) by kmscon (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:15:12)
* INFO: GNOME 51 Alpha is expected imminently so that may cause some fallout (thanks Christopher Boni) (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:15:28)
* TOPIC: Fedora 45 Change review (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:17:54)
* INFO: looking over [accepted](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/45/ChangeSet) and [proposed](https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Category:ChangeAnnounced) changes we note several with potentially significant impacts (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:21:16)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DisableVendorChangeByDefault could cause unexpected behavior in package installers (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:21:35)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/GNUToolchainF45 and https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ShadowStack could cause all kinds of low-level build/functionality issues (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:22:12)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/BashColorPrompt_1.0 could have unexpected interactions with other prompt stuff (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:23:25)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/StratisAnacondaSupport requires yet more storage testing (sigh) in the installer(s) (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:24:02)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/oo7_Secrets_Service_Provider could cause issues with secret storage in KDE and/or GNOME (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:27:49)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/ModernizeBootISO is a substantial change in how a release-blocking image is built (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:28:27)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/45/ChangeSet#RPM_6.1 could obviously affect just about anything (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:28:50)
* INFO: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/OpenSSL40 could break lots of things; it has landed already, though, which is good (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:29:24)
* TOPIC: Test Day / community event status (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:37:07)
* INFO: [kernel 7.1 test week](https://testdays.fedoraproject.org/testday/22) went ahead with solid participation (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:40:07)
* INFO: no other test days planned ATM, we may consider setting up test days for some of the major F45 Changes at future meetings (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:43:19)
* TOPIC: Open floor (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:45:13)
* INFO: there is now a [quality group](https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/g/qa) on discourse - you can add yourself to it and get flair so folks know you're part of the quality team (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:50:20)
* INFO: correction: there is now a quality group on discourse - members of the FAS quality group are automatically added to it, and in your profile you can add the 'qa' flair so a bug logo appears on your profile icon (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:52:18)
Meeting ended at 2026-07-06 15:58:38
Action items
------------
People Present (lines said)
---------------------------
* @adamwill:fedora.im (56)
* @bittin_:mozilla.org (10)
* @derekenz:fedora.im (8)
* @boniboyblue:fedora.im (5)
* @zodbot:fedora.im (3)
* @jlinton:fedora.im (3)
* @meetbot:fedora.im (2)
* @jforbes:fedora.im (2)
* @kashyapc:fedora.im (1)
--
Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
Fedora QA
Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @adamw@fosstodon.org
https://www.happyassassin.net
Hi folks!
I want to formally propose an idea that has been kicked around a bit
informally lately: gating all stable release updates on the relatively
new rmdepcheck reverse dependency static checker. This would include
Fedora and EPEL updates.
rmdepcheck: https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/rmdepcheck
rmdepcheck fails if the update under test, when compared against the
current buildroot repository, contains unsatisfiable dependencies, or
causes new unsatisfiable dependencies to appear in other packages. So
if your update makes some other package uninstallable...that's a fail.
This check has been running on all updates for some time now. We've
dealt with various sources of false failures and I'm fairly confident
it's pretty reliable by now.
Gating all updates for stable releases on it would mean you could no
longer ship updates with detectable dependency issues, unless you waive
the failure - which implies explicitly taking responsibility for
shipping a broken package, or breaking another package.
I don't want to gate Rawhide or Branched on rmdepcheck yet, because
sometimes it's kinda realistically necessary to bump an soname without
being able to fix every single dependency, or something. But I think
(or rather, Carl George pointed out - thanks, Carl) it's more
reasonable for stable releases. After all, the update policy
specifically says:
"Updates should be carefully considered with respect to their
dependencies. An update that required (or provided) a new Python ABI,
for example, would almost certainly not be allowed. ABI changes in
general are very strongly discouraged, they force larger update sets on
users and they make life difficult for third-party packagers."
EPEL has similar stability expectations.
Implementing this is technically trivial (it just requires adding a new
rule to the greenwave policy), but it's obviously a pretty significant
change, so I thought I'd propose it here and on Discourse for
discussion first. I don't think it's a good fit for the Change process.
You can browse existing rmdepcheck results in resultsdb, if you want to
look for false failures. Go to
https://resultsdb.fedoraproject.org/results , click the Search button,
set the 'testcase' to 'fedora-ci.koji-build.rmdepcheck.functional' and
hit Go! That'll give you the last month of results. You can tweak the
date range, and also search only for failed results, if you like. It's
slightly awkward because currently results are reported per package, so
testing an update with 500 packages in it produces 500 results that
link back to the same execution. I do want to change it to report per
update rather than per package, but I don't think that needs to be done
before we start gating.
--
Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
Fedora QA
Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @adamw@fosstodon.org
https://www.happyassassin.net
AI summary:
### Key Discussion Points
* **Flock and Devconf Retrospective:**
* A session on moving tests to dist-git PRs produced a list of improvements for Fedora CI.
* A new system for tracking critical path packages is in development, which could be used for dependency gating in Rawhide.
* The 14-day gating period for `@critpath-build` packages was discussed as being problematic for items like macro packages. A better design is needed.
* Improvements are planned for Lukáš RůžiÄka's LLM-based openQA failure analysis tool.
* Packit bodhi updates should soon start CCing package maintainers.
* **Fedora 45 Status:**
* The OpenSSL 4 update has landed and broken FreeIPA replication tests, which are being temporarily bypassed in Rawhide.
* Rawhide updates were also recently blocked by `haveged` build failures, which has been resolved by disabling its use in the FreeIPA tests for now.
* The latest F45 build appears to be stable.
* **Community and Events:**
* A kernel 7.1 test week is expected to be scheduled soon.
* A call for new maintainers for the Packager Dashboard and Oraculum has found two volunteers, but more are welcome to join via the devel mailing list thread.
### Action Items
* Someone needs to send out the call for Fedora 45 test days.
Autogenerated minutes:
=====================================
# #meeting:fedoraproject.org: Quality
=====================================
Meeting started by @adamwill:fedora.im at 2026-06-22 15:00:06
Meeting summary
---------------
* TOPIC: Roll Call (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:00:11)
* TOPIC: Previous meeting follow-up (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:03:40)
* INFO: "someone to [send out the F45 call for test days](https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/tickets/issues/908)" - this wasn't done, let's try again (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:06:46)
* ACTION: someone to [send out the F45 call for test days](https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/tickets/issues/908) (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:06:55)
* TOPIC: Flock and Devconf retrospective (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:07:38)
* INFO: adamwill, kparal, lruzicka, jgroman, gotmax23, hricky and many others attended flock and/or devconf, lruzicka gave a talk on analyzing openQA failures for developers, several of us attended a sesion with lecris about dist-git PR testing which produced a bunch of ideas for improving Fedora CI, we made plans for the openQA failure analysis tool, and got lots of inspiration for future projects. Look out for trip report blog posts / toots / whatever from participants (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:24:03)
* TOPIC: Fedora 45 status (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:24:19)
* INFO: the openssl 4 update has landed, and broken FreeIPA replication tests. these are temporarily being bypassed on Rawhide to avoid gating problems. we're waiting for devs to figure out and fix the problem (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:24:48)
* INFO: Rawhide updates were also blocked for a while by failures that seem to be caused by recent haveged builds, this is now resolved by temporarily disabling the use of haveged in the FreeIPA tests (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:25:20)
* TOPIC: Test Day / community event status (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:29:23)
* INFO: new kernel test week should be coming up soon, stay tuned (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:32:06)
* TOPIC: Open floor (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:32:09)
* INFO: we have found some volunteers for packager dashboard / oraculum but more are always welcome at https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/devel@lists.fedoraproject.org… (@adamwill:fedora.im, 15:34:17)
Meeting ended at 2026-06-22 15:36:57
Action items
------------
* someone to [send out the F45 call for test days](https://forge.fedoraproject.org/quality/tickets/issues/908)
People Present (lines said)
---------------------------
* @adamwill:fedora.im (52)
* @gotmax23:fedora.im (9)
* @kparal:matrix.org (7)
* @derekenz:fedora.im (5)
* @zodbot:fedora.im (3)
* @meetbot:fedora.im (2)
* @boniboyblue:fedora.im (1)
* @jgroman:fedora.im (1)
--
Adam Williamson (he/him/his)
Fedora QA
Fedora Chat: @adamwill:fedora.im | Mastodon: @adamw@fosstodon.org
https://www.happyassassin.net