[systemd-devel] Please clarify osVersion in ELF package metadata

[Luca Boccassi]

On Mon, 17 Jun 2024 at 14:45, Benjamin Drung <bdrung at ubuntu.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Ubuntu started to implement the ELF package metadata spec. It encodes
> the VERSION_ID from os-release in the osVersion field. Using VERSION_ID
> was objected to because the version is only set in stone once the
> release is done. It could change during the development cycle. See
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel/2024-June/043027.html
> and https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/dpkg/+bug/2069599
>
> The proposal is to use VERSION_CODENAME from os-release instead.
>
> To me it is not clear enough what is the best approach regarding the
> spec https://systemd.io/ELF_PACKAGE_METADATA/ here.
>
> The key description says "typically"? So could we just use
> VERSION_CODENAME for osVersion?
>
> Or should be use a different key like osVersionCodename to allow third-
> party users to still use VERSION_ID for osVersion? In that case
> osVersionCodename should probably added to the well-known keys.
>
> What's your take on it?

Hi,

I replied on ubuntu-devel but it's moderated, so the message didn't
make it through and is waiting for approval.

The gist of it is that this is supposed to be machine readable, and be
what is commonly understood as the version, which for the next ubuntu
version would be 23.10.

Given it's sourced from os-release, which is sourced from base-files,
ideally you'd do an archive-wide rebuild once it is finalized (that
also gives you builds with newer compiler hardening and other
niceties). If that's not possible or not wanted, simply omit the
osVersion field. Parsers need to expect that to be optional, in order
to avoid breaking on rolling release distros like Arch that do not
have a version.