Roadmap

2.4.x (next)

Upgrading from 2.2.x

  • API(show): In (json) result, changes_paths is replaced by event_path and changes_path (f306e1b4). Only relevant should you have custom tool(s) parsing/interpreting the output.

  • Distribution/lintian: Now uses lintian_extra_options and new lintian_warnfail_options fields exclusively for lintian arguments (previously, values from setup depending on codename would be mixed in at run-time). This means full control per Distribution for the administrator now. Per-codename default values are now only used for new Distributions via API(setup).

    If you had customized lintian_extra_options, you may want to recheck your lintian settings; otherwise, nothing needs to be done.

    As always, inspect may be used to show if your settings diverge from setup’s default.

  • API(dput_conf): By default now also outputs “recommendend global config”. Should you really need the old (target only) bevahiour, use --without-global.

Brainstorm

Roughly, volatility of these items increases the lower they are placed.

  • Merge test packages from API call ‘test_packages’ && testsuite

  • reprepro: Handle multiple versions per distribution gracefully (this is already possible <5.4 w/ the ‘components corner case’)

  • django: Integrate CAS/SSO-like features (python3-django-casclient?)

  • Watcher support: Autoport and/or alarm on Debian Package Updates

  • Make piuparts actually work (non-EXPERIMENTAL)

  • gnupg: Switch completely to ‘python3-gpg’ (NOT ‘python3-gpgme’)

  • Archive: Rethink Archive::mbd_ping (see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=740576)

  • reprepro 5.4 (needs to move out of experimental 1st): Allow multiple versions per distribution; eventually deprecates convoluted rollback support

  • reprepro 5.4 (needs to move out of experimental 1st): Drop ddeb exceptions (‘Deb-Build-Options: noddebs’, Ubuntu)

  • Release: Alternatives for NotAutomatic, ButAutomo…)?? Can we use more finegrained PRIOS on archives?

  • sid-test-wildwest: Add extra suite for arbitrary package (deb+src) installs?

  • Dependency check on package migration

  • Replace ftp by twisted/ssh?

  • Switch to jinja2 templates?

  • Conform to DEP-14 (git branch layout)?

  • Implicit deletion of a Chroot instance may leave assosicated data (chroot files) behind (i.e., when deleting resp. Source). See save|delete_model() in models.py – this code is supposed to do that.

2.2.x

  • First release to support django SQL schema migration (for app mini_buildd), including initial model cleanup.

  • Crucial Web UI improvements (speed, usability, look&feel). Thanks Gerhard!

  • Drops all <= bullseye compatibility support – i.e., installable on bookworm or newer only (needs python 3.11 and django 3.2).

  • Logging improvements && doubling down on new style daemon for logging (drops explicit log file daemon.log).

  • Adds tool mini-buildd-cruft to help detect/remove deprecated files from older versions.

  • Many other micro improvements and fixes from a ~year-long development phase (see changelog).

Upgrading from 2.0.x

  • Deprecated -v,--verbose,-q,--quiet option is removed for good (use --log-level)

  • Deprecated mini-buildd -W,--httpd-bind option is removed for good (use use --http-endpoint)

You may also directly upgrade from 1.0.x – in that case, all notes on Upgrading from 1.0.x below also apply.

2.0.x

  • New deb package layout: mini-buildd (the service), mini-buildd-utils (for users), python3-mini-buildd, mini-buildd-doc

  • Code migration to python 3

  • Update to django 2.2 (minimal version)

  • Switch to twisted as http backend

  • Support secure data channels (HTTPS && SFTP)

  • API upgrade to json

  • Event message queue

  • Periodic task scheduler (cron, internal use)

  • Automated repository snasphots (weekly, monthly, yearly)

  • WEB UI rewrite

  • Simplified maintenance (via new API call setup)

  • ‘upgrade-compatible’ (albeit not run-time-compatible) with 1.0.x (especially, there is no SQL schema change)

  • Installable on bookworm, bullseye and buster

Upgrading from 1.0.x

Package upgrade

Your 1.0.x installation will typically run on a buster-based system.

You may simply dist-upgrade / full-upgrade that system (1st to bullseye, then to bookworm) – just make sure the mini-buildd package is never purged during that process.

When done, you will need these extra APT sources:

  • bookworm: Debian Backports (bookworm-backports)

  • bullseye: Hellfield Archive (bullseye-ab-stable)

Alternatively: buster-based upgrade

For convenience, it’s still possible to run 2.0.x under buster with some tweaks:

Extra APT sources needed:

  • Debian Backports (buster-backports)

  • Hellfield Archive (buster-ab-stable)

To upgrade, aptitude is imho the easiest way. Select the suggestion that de-installs py2 variants, and upgrades all the rest:

aptitude install mini-buildd/buster-ab-stable

Attention

buster-based install: 500 Internal Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: 'S.gpg-agent.extra'

We see this error seemingly random on buster installations (w/ 2.2.27-1~bpo10+1) only so far.

  • Removing a very old left-over ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf seem to have helped so far on an actual host

  • In test suite / chroot, it usually pops up with profile ‘_all’

  • Never yet seen with default (no) profile or ‘_debian’

Post-upgrade checklist

Administrator
  • mini-buildd command line arguments (dpkg-reconfigure) – see command ‘mini-buildd’

    • --httpd-bind is now deprecated in favor of --http-endpoint

    • --verbose, --quiet are now deprecated in favor of --log-level. Also, giving none of these options now yields the recommended production log level (before, --verbose was default)

    • --debug now has some options removed (see man page). In general, never use it for production, --log-level=DEBUG should be good enough

  • Decide if you want switch to https/ftps: See Running encrypted

  • Inspect/extend your setup, see mini-buildd’s ‘setup’ page. Especially, check for these “model diff”s (which must be fixed manually):

    • Daemon.ftpd_bind: Deprecates ‘non-endpoint’ notation

    • Daemon.gnupg_keyserver: Please change to traditional keyserver (like keyserver.ubuntu.com) to retain functionality

    • Distribution.sbuildrc_snippet and Distribution.schroot_setup_script. These most likely have legacy support code for ccache and eatmydata, which is now supported by builtin ccache and eatmydata – see Distribution

  • Remake all chroots – see API call ‘remake_chroots’, mini-buildd’s ‘builders’ page

  • Rebuild all keyring packages (so they no longer use deprecated apt-key) – see API call ‘keyring_packages’

  • In case you hate the autogenerated complicated “Origin” text, you may now customize it – see DB field Daemon.extra_options

  • In case you have a custom SSH upload setup (i.e., similar to what has been suggested in the 1.0.x manual):

  • File ~/.mini-buildd.pid is no longer used, and may be removed (unless you use a custom setup using the old initv start/stop script)

Consumer
  • Keyring Package: The path to the convenience sources.list files has changed. If you happen to link these, you will need to update:

    • All support files are now under /usr/share/<your_id>-archive-keyring (to be able to cleanly support installing multiple keyring packages)

1.0.x

Installation

Debian stretch

Add Debian Backports to your sources.list:

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ stretch-backports main contrib non-free

Aptitude will serve you better to interactively resolve dependencies from backports. Go with the resolution that actually selects mini-buildd from stretch-backports (bpo9):

aptitude update
aptitude install mini-buildd/stretch-backports         # Server instance
aptitude install python-mini-buildd/stretch-backports  # Client support only

Debian jessie

Add Debian Backports to your sources.list:

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ jessie-backports main contrib non-free

Aptitude will serve you better to interactively resolve dependencies from backports. Go with the resolution that actually selects mini-buildd from jessie-backports (bpo8):

aptitude update
aptitude install mini-buildd/jessie-backports         # Server instance
aptitude install python-mini-buildd/jessie-backports  # Client support only

Debian wheezy

Add Debian Backports and The Hellfield Archive’s stable suite to your sources.list:

deb http://httpredir.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-backports main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ab/ wheezy-ab-stable main contrib non-free

Aptitude will serve you better to interactively resolve dependencies from Debian Backports and The Hellfield Archive; also, Recommended dependencies are likely to produce conflicting package installs on this setup. Go with the resolution that actually selects mini-buildd from wheezy-ab-stable (ab70):

aptitude update
aptitude --without-recommends install mini-buildd/wheezy-ab-stable         # Server instance
aptitude --without-recommends install python-mini-buildd/wheezy-ab-stable  # Client support only

Others

Note that you are on your own here; this might or might not work for your target at hand, but you may try anyway ;).

First, check The Hellfield Archive if your target distribution is available at all.

Then, for whatever distribution CODENAME you are using, add stable + unstable + snapshot from The Hellfield Archive:

deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ab/ CODENAME-ab-stable main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ab/ CODENAME-ab-unstable main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ab/ CODENAME-ab-snasphot main contrib non-free

It will also usually be a good idea to add any backport fashion source for your target if any such thing is available.

Then try your luck with aptitude:

aptitude update
aptitude --without-recommends install mini-buildd/CODENAME-ab-snapshot         # Server instance
aptitude --without-recommends install python-mini-buildd/CODENAME-ab-snapshot  # Client support only

Migrate packages from 0.8.x

Tip

Can I skip migrating from 0.8.x?

Yes – a much simpler solution might be to just copy the old repository directory (~/rep) somewhere and serve it via some standard web server, and just continue to use it along with your new repo as long as needed.

This roughly explains the steps needed to upgrade a mini-buildd 0.8.x installation to 1.0.x with transferring the packages from the old 0.8.x repositories over, so you can continue with the new 1.0.x repos only:

  1. Upgrade mini-buildd from 0.8.x to 1.0.

    Chances are this might have already implicitly happened, with some update.

    You will then have 1.0 up and running, and ye olde 0.8.x repositories still available as read-only apt repositories.

    Just be sure you don’t purge the old package, and then install 1.0, as this will remove the whole old repository.

  2. Configure mini-buildd 1.0.

    This means you should, in the end, have a 1.0 repository with the same identity as the old 0.8.x repository, and with all distributions you want to migrate.

  3. Import packages.

    Become mini-buildd user, and got to the new 1.0 reprepro repository you want to import to, and use the importer script to migrate packages:

    cd repositories/REPOID
mini-buildd-import-08x ~/rep/squeeze-REPOID-experimental squeeze-REPOID-experimental
mini-buildd-import-08x ~/rep/squeeze-REPOID squeeze-REPOID-unstable

    This example is for squeeze; repeat the imports for all base distributions you want to migrate.

    Thusly, ye olde *-experimental distribution will be migrated to the distribution with the same name in 1.0. Ye olde squeeze-REPOID goes to squeeze-REPOID-unstable. For the latter, multiple package version will be automatically installed to the new rollback distributions (which are needed with reprepro to support multiple package versions).

  4. (Optional) Fix up package status.

    All the migrated packages are now in 1.0 “unstable” distribution; you may think of bulk-migrating them all to “stable”, if that were your semantics for the 0.8.x non-experimental distributions.

Eventually, when everything is updated, you may of course (re)move the old 0.8.x directory ~/rep/.

See also

Debian Bug #790292

0.8.x (deprecated)

Vintage 0.8.x upgrade support is available through the The Hellfield Archive’s ablg (last generation) repository for lenny, squeeze and wheezy with one of these lines:

deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ablg/ lenny-ablg-stable main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ablg/ squeeze-ablg-stable main contrib non-free
deb http://debian.installiert.net/hellfield/ablg/ wheezy-ablg-stable main contrib non-free