Re: Solutions for the Apache upgrade hell
On 2014-07-23 02:05:26 +0200, Arno Töll wrote:
> On 23.07.2014 01:19, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> > BTW, I'm wondering whether the fact that "invoke.rc-d apache2 restart"
> > fails should make the postinst script fail and affect the whole upgrade.
>
> It does actually as we fixed #716921 a while back.
OK, I forgot that (I solved the problem before this was fixed IIRC).
> > If the goal is to make the user notice that Apache doesn't run, this is
> > rather unnecessary: In any case, the user should test his web server
> > after an Apache upgrade (or other major upgrade in the system), even
> > when everything seems fine during the upgrade. This should be regarded
> > more as a "run-time" failure than an "install-time" failure.
>
> ... which we do. Yet people, including you, blame us for that data loss
> as you start the (re-)server at runtime afterwards even though the
> installation completes. :-)
Well, with the fix above, this is now a separate problem.
Unfortunately it seems that there are no really good solutions.
One can at least suppose that the user keeps backups, at least
before such a major upgrade. Now, thinking again about your
first mail:
> * Ignore the problem, and refer to the manpage of aptitude without
> proper fix etc. which clearly says "THIS OPTION CAN CAUSE DATA LOSS! DO
> NOT USE IT UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING". The bad news is, we
> can't tell this before it's too late, such as in a NEWS file - and we
> know, everybody reads release notes too, right?
I don't understand that: Why is it too late? The NEWS.Debian file is
displayed by apt-listchanges *before* the user accepts the upgrade.
So, the user should be aware of the problem. If the user doesn't
read the NEWS.Debian file (which is there to present important
differences, regressions..., i.e. something that the user must
really know in general), then this is his fault.
Note: the NEWS.Debian part for apache2 2.4.1-1 is rather lengthy
(which is normal here). So, information related to data loss must
be put first, with a big WARNING, so that the user doesn't miss it.
--
Vincent Lefèvre <vincent@vinc17.net> - Web: <https://www.vinc17.net/>
100% accessible validated (X)HTML - Blog: <https://www.vinc17.net/blog/>
Work: CR INRIA - computer arithmetic / AriC project (LIP, ENS-Lyon)
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