[arch-projects] [netctl] news draft

[Eli Schwartz]

On 08/03/2018 02:10 PM, Jouke Witteveen wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 3, 2018 at 7:57 PM Eli Schwartz via arch-projects
> <arch-projects at archlinux.org> wrote:
>>
>> On 08/03/2018 01:48 PM, Jouke Witteveen via arch-projects wrote:
>>> Hello all,
>>>
>>> I cannot send to arch-dev-public and don't know where to post this
>>> otherwise, so I'll just put this out here.
>>>
>>> With systemd 239, a deprecation message is printed in the journal for
>>> enabled netctl profiles (FS#59494). This currently has no effect on
>>> the functionality of either systemd or netctl. Nevertheless, the next
>>> version of netctl, which is not yet released, will move away from the
>>> deprecated features. However, the warnings are caused by unit files
>>> generated by netctl, so an update will not simply make the warnings go
>>> away.
>>> Here is a draft for a news post to accompany the next version of
>>> netctl down the line.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> - Jouke
>>> ----
>>> Title: netctl 1.18 may require manual intervention
>>>
>>> In response to the explicit deprecation of .include statements in
>>> systemd units, netctl has modified its unit management. This change
>>> only affects individually enabled netctl profiles. To use the new
>>> management scheme, all enabled profiles must be reenabled after
>>> updating netctl. This can be done through `netctl reenable <profile>`.
>>> No action is needed for the automatic netctl services.
>>
>> Why would it need manual intervention? Does netctl not work if you use
>> the old format? From systemd's side, the whole reason it is a
>> deprecation warning is because it will continue to work for some time
>> until they finally ditch it entirely.
>>
>> I would assume that existing netctl profiles which aren't reenabled
>> would continue to successfully use the old, deprecated unit files?
> 
> Indeed, I expect the generated units to continue to work for a little
> longer, but at https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/8530 there is
> already a suggestion to proceed the deprecation further. I think it is
> nice to tell people what to do if they are bothered by the deprecation
> warning in their logs. Maybe in a different wording, stressing that
> nothing will break (for now) if you don't reenable your profiles?

I'm not sure I understand the suggestion to mark it as tainted, what
exactly is "tainted" about using deprecated stuff?

I think systemd's builtin deprecation policies are probably sufficient
for now, especially as nothing actually breaks for now.

In this case I would not use a news post, but I might consider a
post_upgrade function in an install script for netctl itself which runs
once for the upgrade from 1.17 to (unreleased) 1.18, warning users to
refresh their profiles. News posts are usually for things which require
manual intervention *before* updating.

And as long as 1.18 isn't released yet, I guess it makes no sense at all
to warn people about something they cannot do yet. :D

-- 
Eli Schwartz
Bug Wrangler and Trusted User

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