[Discussion] Add SUPPORT_END to /etc/os-release #4

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label · 2022-12-23T02:26:16Z

label commented

2022-12-23 02:26:16 +00:00

A bug report was opened some time ago (RLBT#0001190) about adding SUPPORT_END to /etc/os-release. It's for Rocky Linux 8. It was noted to the reporter systemd in Rocky Linux 8 is too old to support such a flag, but they also asked for it to be part of 9.

In CentOS Stream 9, systemd was rebased to 252. This means that the support-ended flag will be set if the date is expired, assuming SUPPORT_END is specified. This issue is to start a discussion on adding SUPPORT_END to /etc/os-release of both 8 and 9 and how it should look, while understanding that this will only affect 9's systemd tainting.

As far as I see it, there's two ways we can go about this:

Set SUPPORT_END to the absolute EOL of each major version
- (2029-05-31 and 2032-05-31 for 8 and 9 respectively)
- Pro: An absolute indicator of when our major versions are EOL
- Con: Some users never update and there's no indication to them they should
Set SUPPORT_END to the relative EOL of each minor version
- Each will be 6 months out and will always end in May and November
- On the X.10 release, the absolute EOL will be set instead.
- Pro: A relative indicator of when a minor version is EOL, and a user can be notified fairly quickly by systemd that it's EOL (and hinting that it's time to update)
- Con: A user could take the message from systemd as to mean Rocky Linux X is completely EOL and may cause confusion.

A relative EOL of each minor version would fall in line with our own policies as detailed on our wiki and explained by all community members that only the current version is supported at any given time. But confusion could still remain either way.

A bug report was opened some time ago (RLBT#0001190) about adding SUPPORT_END to `/etc/os-release`. It's for Rocky Linux 8. It was noted to the reporter systemd in Rocky Linux 8 is too old to support such a flag, but they also asked for it to be part of 9. In CentOS Stream 9, systemd was rebased to 252. This means that the `support-ended` flag will be set if the date is expired, assuming `SUPPORT_END` is specified. This issue is to start a discussion on adding SUPPORT_END to /etc/os-release of both 8 *and* 9 and how it should look, while understanding that this will only affect 9's systemd tainting. As far as I see it, there's two ways we can go about this: * Set `SUPPORT_END` to the absolute EOL of each major version * (`2029-05-31` and `2032-05-31` for 8 and 9 respectively) * **Pro**: An absolute indicator of when our major versions are EOL * **Con**: Some users never update and there's no indication to them they should * Set `SUPPORT_END` to the relative EOL of each minor version * Each will be 6 months out and will always end in May and November * On the `X.10` release, the absolute EOL will be set instead. * **Pro**: A relative indicator of when a minor version is EOL, and a user can be notified fairly quickly by systemd that it's EOL (and hinting that it's time to update) * **Con**: A user could take the message from systemd as to mean Rocky Linux `X` is completely EOL and may cause confusion. A relative EOL of each minor version would fall in line with our own policies as detailed on our wiki and explained by all community members that only the *current* version is supported at any given time. But confusion could still remain either way.

label added the

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OS_Development

labels 2022-12-23 02:26:16 +00:00

label closed this issue

2023-03-15 02:53:18 +00:00

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